Re: read/write arbitrary files

[Bjorn Helgaas <bjorn dot helgaas at hp dot com>]

On Monday 25 August 2008 11:23:10 am Michael Snyder wrote:
> Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> > I'd like to use gdb to examine and update arbitrary files.  In
> > particular, I'd like to disassemble and patch files like /dev/mem
> > that are not in executable or core formats.
> > 
> > Is there already a way to do this?  If not, could there be?  This
> > was a very useful feature of adb.
> 
> It's not really what gdb is good for.
> Arbitrary files such as /dev/mem have no symbols and no types.
> It should be easy to either use an existing hex editor, or
> write one to do this sort of patching.  This tool could be
> orders of magnitude less complicated than gdb.

The hex editor part is easy.  I know how to do that already.

The disassembly part is much harder, and this is the part
I'm looking for.  It'd be very handy to use all the
disassemblers and the well-known user interface of gdb.

Another useful feature of gdb is its knowledge of types.  It
would be convenient to be able to read type information from
an executable, then use that information to format structures
from /dev/mem.

Bjorn