How do I search for binary characters in less? [solved]

curmudgeon · Veteran Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 1744

Looking at a binary file in less, I want to find (say) the next occurance of the character 0xab. How do I do that? I know how to search for binary characters in vim, but vim doesn't display the file the way I want to see it like less does. Thanks.

didymos · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:24 pm Post subject:

Just search for the string like you normally would: Hit forwardslash and type in 0x<whatever>. That applies to executables by the way. Less recognizes them and displays them in a special format. For something like a ROM image or other format less doesn't recognize, you still only need to search normally, only the 0x is omitted.
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Thomas S. Howard

curmudgeon · Veteran Joined: 08 Aug 2003 Posts: 1744

I swear I tried that (the second case - for a non-executable file), and it didn't work before, but it does work now, so apparently, I did something wrong. Thanks.