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OD

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
Index Return to Main Contents

NAME

od - dump files in octal and other formats

SYNOPSIS

od [,OPTION/]... [,FILE/]...
od [,-abcdfilosx/]... [,FILE/] [[,+/],OFFSET/[,./][,b/]]
od ,-traditional /[,OPTION/]... [,FILE/] [[,+/],OFFSET/[,./][,b/] [,+/][,LABEL/][,./][,b/]]

DESCRIPTION

Write an unambiguous representation, octal bytes by default, of FILE to standard output. With more than one FILE argument, concatenate them in the listed order to form the input.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

If first and second call formats both apply, the second format is assumed if the last operand begins with + or (if there are 2 operands) a digit. An OFFSET operand means -j OFFSET. LABEL is the pseudo-address at first byte printed, incremented when dump is progressing. For OFFSET and LABEL, a 0x or 0X prefix indicates hexadecimal; suffixes may be . for octal and b for multiply by 512.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-A'-A, --address-radix=,RADIXX'tty: link'/: output format for file offsets; RADIX is one of [doxn], for Decimal, Octal, Hex or None
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-endian'--endian={big|little}X'tty: link': swap input bytes according the specified order
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-j'-j, --skip-bytes=,BYTESX'tty: link'/: skip BYTES input bytes first
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-N'-N, --read-bytes=,BYTESX'tty: link'/: limit dump to BYTES input bytes
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-S'-S BYTES, --strings[=,BYTES]X'tty: link'/: show only NUL terminated strings of at least BYTES (default 3) printable characters
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-t'-t, --format=,TYPEX'tty: link'/: select output format or formats
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-v'-v, --output-duplicatesX'tty: link': do not use * to mark line suppression
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-w'-w[BYTES], --width[=,BYTES]X'tty: link'/: output BYTES bytes per output line; 32 is implied when BYTES is not specified
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-traditional'--traditionalX'tty: link': accept arguments in third form above
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/od#o-help'--helpX'tty: link': display this help and exit
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/od#o-version'--versionX'tty: link': output version information and exit

Traditional format specifications may be intermixed; they accumulate:

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-a'-aX'tty: link': same as -t a, select named characters, ignoring high-order bit
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-b'-bX'tty: link': same as -t o1, select octal bytes
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-c'-cX'tty: link': same as -t c, select printable characters or backslash escapes
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-d'-dX'tty: link': same as -t u2, select unsigned decimal 2-byte units
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-f'-fX'tty: link': same as -t fF, select floats
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-i'-iX'tty: link': same as -t dI, select decimal ints
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-l'-lX'tty: link': same as -t dL, select decimal longs
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-o'-oX'tty: link': same as -t o2, select octal 2-byte units
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-s'-sX'tty: link': same as -t d2, select decimal 2-byte units
X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#o-x'-xX'tty: link': same as -t x2, select hexadecimal 2-byte units

TYPE is made up of one or more of these specifications:

a: named character, ignoring high-order bit
c: printable character or backslash escape
d[SIZE]: signed decimal, SIZE bytes per integer
f[SIZE]: floating point, SIZE bytes per float
o[SIZE]: octal, SIZE bytes per integer
u[SIZE]: unsigned decimal, SIZE bytes per integer
x[SIZE]: hexadecimal, SIZE bytes per integer

SIZE is a number. For TYPE in [doux], SIZE may also be C for sizeof(char), S for sizeof(short), I for sizeof(int) or L for sizeof(long). If TYPE is f, SIZE may also be B for Brain 16 bit, H for Half precision float, F for sizeof(float), D for sizeof(double), or L for sizeof(long double).

Adding a z suffix to any type displays printable characters at the end of each output line.