Hexdump Utility

3.3 · maintenance · verified Wed Apr 15

The `hexdump` Python library (version 3.3) provides functionality to dump binary data into a human-readable hexadecimal format and to restore binary data from such hex dumps. It works across Linux, Windows, and OS X, serving as both a Python library and a command-line tool. The last official release was in January 2016, indicating a maintenance phase rather than active development, though it remains functional for its stated purpose.

Warnings

breaking Python 3 compatibility requires `bytes` objects for `hexdump()` input. Unlike Python 2 where `str` could be used for binary data, passing a Unicode `str` in Python 3 will result in a `TypeError`.
Fix: Ensure that data passed to `hexdump()` is a `bytes` object. Encode strings (e.g., `my_string.encode('utf-8')`) before passing them to `hexdump()`.
gotcha When installed via an OS package manager, the command-line utility for `hexdump` might conflict with the system's `util-linux hexdump` command. The project suggests a different name like `hexdumper` for such installations.
Fix: If encountering conflicts, use `python -m hexdump` to invoke the command-line tool explicitly, or check your system's package documentation for alternative names (e.g., `hexdumper`).
gotcha The `dehex()` function is designed to be more tolerant of whitespace and linefeeds in input hex strings compared to stricter alternatives like `binascii.unhexlify()`. While often convenient, this behavior might be unexpected if very strict parsing of hex data is required.
Fix: If strict hex string validation is needed before conversion, consider pre-processing the input string to remove all whitespace yourself, or use `binascii.unhexlify()` if its stricter parsing is preferred for the use case.

Install

pip install hexdump Install latest version

Imports

hexdump
wrong:
```
import hexdump; hexdump.hexdump(some_string)
```
correct:
```
from hexdump import hexdump
```
The primary function `hexdump` is exposed directly, so it's best to import it explicitly. The `hexdump` module itself also contains the `hexdump` function, but explicit import is clearer.
dehex
wrong:
```
import hexdump; hexdump.dehex(some_string)
```
correct:
```
from hexdump import dehex
```
Similar to `hexdump`, the `dehex` function for restoring binary data should be imported explicitly for clarity.

Quickstart

This quickstart demonstrates how to use `hexdump.hexdump()` to print a hexadecimal representation of binary data to standard output, and `hexdump.dehex()` to convert a hexadecimal string back into binary data. It also shows how to use `hexdump.dumpgen()` to get the hexdump as an iterable of strings for more control over output.

import hexdump

# Dump bytes to hex string, output to stdout
data_to_dump = b"Hello, hexdump library! This is some binary data to inspect."
print("\n--- Hex dump of data ---")
hexdump.hexdump(data_to_dump)

# Restore binary data from a hex string
hex_string_to_restore = "48 65 6C 6C 6F 2C 20 68 65 78 64 75 6D 70 20 6C 69 62 72 61 72 79 21 20 54 68 69 73 20 69 73 20 73 6F 6D 65 20 62 69 6E 61 72 79 20 64 61 74 61 20 74 6F 20 69 6E 73 70 65 63 74 2E"
restored_data = hexdump.dehex(hex_string_to_restore)
print("\n--- Restored data ---")
print(restored_data)

# You can also get the hexdump as a string instead of printing directly
hex_lines = []
for line in hexdump.dumpgen(data_to_dump):
    hex_lines.append(line)
print("\n--- Hex dump as list of strings ---")
print("\n".join(hex_lines))

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