hxedit

A terminal hex editor for large files, written in Rust.

中文文档 / Chinese README

hxedit focuses on correct byte-level editing semantics first: non-destructive editing, full undo/redo, search, format inspection, and optional executable/disassembly browsing.

Features

• Fixed byte-column header (00 01 02 ... 0F by default) for quick column lookup while scrolling
• Non-destructive byte editing with three distinct operations:
  • overwrite in place
  • real insert
  • tombstone delete
• Full undo / redo across edits, paste, replace, and inspector writes
• ASCII and hex search with forward/backward traversal, wrap-around, and visible-hit highlighting
• Built-in format inspectors for ELF, PE/COFF, Mach-O, PNG, ZIP, GZIP, GIF, BMP, WAV, TAR, and JPEG
• Hashing for MD5, SHA1, SHA256, SHA512, and CRC32
• Clipboard copy/paste, export, fill/zero/xor/replace transforms
• Read-only synchronized diff page against another file (:diff)
• Large-file support through paged I/O and cache
• Optional disassembly browsing, symbol search, and inline assemble patching

Quick Start

Run from source:

cargo run -- <file>

Example:

cargo run -- --readonly --offset 0x100 --inspector some.bin

If you already built the binary:

hxedit some.bin

Build

hxedit ships in three feature bundles:

Bundle	Build command	Includes
core	cargo build --release --no-default-features	Hex editor, inspector, search, diff, hash, copy/paste, export
default	cargo build --release	core + disassembly view, instruction search, symbol panel
full	cargo build --release --no-default-features --features full	default + Keystone-backed inline assemble patching

Notes:

• default is the normal build.
• full vendors keystone-engine and enables inline assembly patching inside :dis.
• There is no separate :asm command.

CLI Flags

Flag	Description
--readonly	Open without write access; automatically falls back to read-only when needed
--offset <n|0xhex>	Start at a specific byte offset
--inspector	Open with the side panel visible on the inspector page
--bytes-per-line <n>	Bytes shown per row, default 16
--page-size <n>	Page-cache read size, default 16384
--cache-pages <n>	Page-cache capacity, default 128
--profile	Print diagnostics to stderr on exit
--no-color	Disable colors; NO_COLOR also disables styling

Common Commands

Command	Description
:w / :w <path> / :wq	Save / save as / save and quit
:u [n] / :redo [n]	Undo / redo
:g <offset> / :g end / :g +n / :g -n	Goto
:s <text> / :s! <text>	ASCII search
:S <hex> / :S! <hex>	Hex search
:p / :pi / :p? / :pi?	Overwrite / insert paste and previews
:c [fmt] [disp]	Copy the active selection
:export <path> / :export c / :export py	Export logical bytes
:xor <key> / :xor! <key>	XOR active selection to clipboard / XOR in place (key: decimal 0..255 or hex 0x00..0xff)
:fill <pattern> <len> / :zero <len>	Overwrite transforms
:re ... / :re! ...	Equal-length replace / length-changing replace
`:hash md5	sha1
:diff <path> / :diff -n <N> <path> / `:diff refresh	next
:insp / :insp more	Open inspector / reveal more paginated entries
:format ...	Force format

Disassembly-related commands in default / full builds:

Command	Description
:dis [arch]	Enter read-only disassembly view for recognized ELF / PE / Mach-O executables
:dis! <arch> <offset>	Force raw disassembly from a display offset
:dis off	Leave disassembly view
:si / :si!	Search decoded instruction text
:symbol / :symbol!	Search by symbol name
:sym / :sym off	Open / close the symbol panel
:data / :data off	Open / close the cursor-relative data panel

Release Bundles

Tagged releases publish an explicit OS * arch * feature matrix.

Current release matrix:

• linux / x86_64 / core
• linux / x86_64 / default
• linux / x86_64 / full
• linux / aarch64 / core
• linux / aarch64 / default
• linux / aarch64 / full
• macos / aarch64 / core
• macos / aarch64 / default
• macos / aarch64 / full
• windows / x86_64 / core
• windows / x86_64 / default
• windows / x86_64 / full

License

hxedit is distributed under GPL-2.0-only.