Read Octet Stream
Re: reading files in octet-stream [][] [][] [] [] [] Re: reading files in octet-stream • From: Deron Meranda • To: For users of Fedora Core releases • Subject: Re: reading files in octet-stream • Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 16:09:20 -0500 On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 12:40:59 -0800 (PST), Globe Trotter wrote: > how does one convert the following file to read it? Schedule 2 drug laws. > > file -i temp > temp: application/octet-stream The term 'octet stream' is just a fancy way of saying arbitrary binary data (a stream of 8-bit bytes). Since the file is unidentified, what you mean by 'reading' it is also not well defined. I assume you're trying to figure out what's in it. One of the first tools you can use is the strings(1) command.it will attempt to find and extract the printable text inside a binary file. You also can use hexdump(1) (or the older od(1) for Unix folk). And finally the emacs editor has wonderful binary data capabilities for editing and viewing binary data files.