Yet Another Hex to bin converter

It can handle the extended Intel hex format in segmented and linear address modes. Records need not be sorted and there can be gaps between records.

Some hex files are produced by compilers. They generate objects files for each module in a project, and when the linker generates the final hex file, the object files are stored within the hex files, but modules can appear not necessary in order of address.

How does it work?

Hex2bin/mot2bin allocates a buffer and just place the converted bytes in its buffer. At the end, the buffer is written to disk. Using a buffer eliminates the need to sort records. Hex2bin and mot2bin will calculate the needed buffer size directly from the hex file.

Before reading the hex file, the buffer is filled with a default value. These padding bytes are all FF by default so an EPROM programmer can skip these bytes when programming. The padding value can be changed with the -p option.

1. Compiling on Linux or other unix platforms

   make

   then

   make install

   This will install the program to /usr/local/bin.

1a. Compiling for Windows on Msys, Cygwin or DOS prompt

Versions already compiled for Windows are in bin/Release

The programs can be compiled as follows:
  gcc -O2 -Wall -o hex2bin.exe hex2bin.c common.c libcrc.c binary.c
  gcc -O2 -Wall -o mot2bin.exe mot2bin.c common.c libcrc.c binary.c

2. Using hex2bin

   hex2bin example.hex

   hex2bin will generate a binary file example.bin starting at the lowest address in the hex file.

3. Binary file starting address and length

   If the lowest address isn't 0000, ex: 0100: (the first record begins with :nn010000xxx )

   there will be problems when using the binary file to program a EPROM since the first byte supposed to be at 0100 is stored in the binary file at 0000.

   you can specify a starting address for the binary file on the command line:

   hex2bin -s 0000 start_at_0100.hex

    This start address is not the same thing as the start address record in
    the hex file. The start address record is used to specify the starting
    address for execution of the binary code.
   

   The bytes will be stored in the binary file with a padding from 0000 to the lowest address minus 1 (00FF in this case).

   Similarly, the binary file can be padded up to Length -1 with FF or another byte.

   Here, the space between the last byte and 07FF will be filled with FF. hex2bin -l 0800 ends_before_07FF.hex

   EPROM, EEPROM and Flash memories contain all FF when erased.

   This program does minimal error checking since many hex files are generated by known good assemblers.

   When the source file name is for-example.test.hex the binary created will have the name for-example.bin the ".test" part will be dropped.

   Hex2bin/mot2bin assume the source file doesn't contain overlapping records, if so, overlaps will be reported.

4. Checksum of source file

   By default, it ignores record checksum errors, so that someone can change by hand some bytes allowing quick and dirty changes. If you want checksum error reporting, specify the option -c.

   hex2bin -c example.hex

   If there is a record checksum error somewhere, the program will continue the conversion anyway.

   The example file example.hex contains some records with checksum errors.

5. Check value inserted inside binary file

   A check value can be inserted in the resulting binary file.

   hex2bin -k [0-4] -r [start] [end] -f [address] -C [Poly] [Init] [RefIn] [RefOut] [XorOut]

   -k Select the check method: 0: Checksum 8-bit 1: Checksum 16-bit 2: CRC8 3: CRC16 4: CRC32

   -r Range to compute checksum over (default is min and max addresses)

   -f Address of the result to write

   -C Parameters for CRC Parameters for common CRCs are listed in doc/CRC list.txt. They appear in the same order. Feed them as is and use t for TRUE, f for FALSE.

    See also the test/Makefile for these common CRCs; since they're tested,
    you'll have the command line figured out.
   

   -E Endian for storing the check result or forcing it 0: little 1: big

   Change from previous versions of hex2bin/mot2bin: Replace former options to this version -k 1 -> -k 1 -E 0 -k 2 -> -k 1 -E 1

6. Value inserted directly inside binary file Instead of calculating a value, it can be inserted directly into the file at a specified address.

   hex2bin -k [0|1|2] -F [address] [value]

   -k Select the value format:

    0 = 8-bit
    1 = 16-bit
    2 = 32-bit
   

   -F Address and value of checksum to force

   -E Endian for storing the check result or forcing it 0: little 1: big

7. Motorola S files

   mot2bin example.s19

   Options for mot2bin are the same as hex2bin. Executing the program without argument will display available options. Some are specific to Motorola files.

   This program will handle S19 files generated for Motorola micropro- cessors. 32, 24 bits or 16 bits address records are supported up to the memory available.

8. Support for byte-swapped hex/S19 files

   -w Wordwise swap: for each pair of bytes, exchange the low and high part. If a checksum needs to be generated to insert in the binary file, select one of the 16-bit checksums.

   hex2bin -w test-byte-swap.hex

9. Batch file/script mode

   Hex2bin won't ask for replacement files if the one specified is not found. This is convenient in batch files, Makefiles or scripts.

   hex2bin -b test.hex

10. Goodies

    Description of the file formats is included. Added examples files for extended addressing.

    Check for overlapping records. The check is rather basic: supposing that the buffer is filled with pad bytes, when a record overlaps a previous one, value in the buffer will be different from the pad bytes. This will not detect the case when the previous value equals the pad byte, but it's more likely that more than one byte will be overlapped.

11. Error messages

    "Can't allocate memory."

    Can't do anything in this case, so the program simply exits.

    "Error occurred while reading from file"

    Problem with fgets.

    "Input/Output file %s cannot be opened. Enter new filename: "

    The user may not have permissions to open the file.

    "0 byte length data record ignored"

    This means that an empty data record was read. Since it's empty, it's simply ignored and should have no impact on the binary file.

    "Data record skipped at ..."

    This means that the records are falling outside the memory buffer.

    "Overlapped record detected"

    A record is overwritten by a subsequent record. If you're using SDCC, check if more than one area is specified with a starting address. Checking the map file generated by the linker can help.

    "Some error occurred when parsing options."

12. History

    See ChangeLog
    

13. Other hex tool

    There is a program that supports more formats and has more features. See SRecord at http://srecord.sourceforge.net/