Utility for Header-fying a Binary File 1

[chipperMDW]

Can someone point me to a utility that can convert a binary file into a C (or C++) header? A Unix utility would be preferred, but a Windows one will work, too.

For example, such a utility might generate output similar to the following:

#ifndef XXXXX
#define XXXXX

const char xxxxx_data = "\005\000\003\062\145\000\003"
                        "\064\061\210\005\112\421\000";

#endif

 

[ArkM]

How about compiler's restriction on initialization list (or string literal)length? Moreover: a declaration with initialization is a definition, but definitions are placed in .c files, not in headers (multiple definitions problem)...

 

[chipperMDW]

For short binary files, the length restriction doesn't matter much. And I'm not sure, but the GNU people seem to hate arbitrary limits, so my GCC could probably handle a file larger than whatever the C++ Standard gives as a max.


This would not be a normal header to be included in several translation units; it would be included in a single source file.

I could call it an "#includable file" and give it a suffix of [tt].inc[/tt] if the idea of a definition in a header file is unacceptable; it would be the same idea, however.


At any rate, it seems like [tt]bin2h[/tt] is the utility I was looking for, but I seem to be able to find only a Windows version of the tool. If anyone knows where to find a Unix version of [tt]bin2h[/tt], please let me know.

 

[Salem]

Well I would go with something like

unsigned char data[] = {
#include "binary.inc"
};

This handy perl script can generate the data with say
[tt]hex_to_c.pl file.dat > binary.inc[/tt]

The script

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

$/ = undef;
my @bytes = unpack("C*",<>);
my $len = $#bytes;

for ( my $i = 0 ; $i < $len ; $i++ ) {
  printf( "0x%02x, ", $bytes[$i] );
  print "\n" if ( ($i+1) % 16 == 0 );
}
print "\n";

--

 

[chipperMDW]

Thanks.

I'm just a little surprised that the GNU people made something like [tt]bin2h[/tt] for Microsoft systems, but no equivalent for GNU systems... it must be in some package somewhere I haven't found, yet.