Bine - A fast terminal hex editor

( English / Japanese )

A fast terminal hex editor for large files and pipelines.

DEMO

Key Features

Fast startup with asynchronous loading
The viewer launches instantly and loads data in the background, allowing immediate interaction even with large files.
Split-view with hex and character representations
The screen is divided approximately 2:1 between hexadecimal and character views. Supported encodings include UTF-8, UTF-16 (LE/BE), and the current Windows code page. You can switch encoding on the fly with key commands.
Vi-style navigation
Navigation keys follow the familiar vi keybindings (h, j, k, l, etc.), allowing smooth movement for experienced users.
(Note: File name input uses Emacs-style key bindings.)
Supports files and standard input/output
bine can read binary data from files or standard input. Edited data can also be written to standard output, making it suitable for use in command pipelines.
Smart decoding with character annotations
Multi-byte characters are visually grouped based on byte structure. Special code points such as BOMs and control characters (e.g., newlines) are annotated with readable names or symbols, making it easier to understand mixed binary/text content and debug encoding issues.
Minimal screen usage
bine only uses as many terminal lines as needed (1 line = 16 bytes), without occupying the full screen. This makes it easy to inspect or edit small binary data while still seeing the surrounding terminal output.
Cross-platform
Written in Go, bine runs on both Windows and Linux. It should also build and work on other Unix-like systems.

Install

Manual installation

Download the binary package from Releases and extract the executable.

Use eget installer (cross-platform)

brew install eget        # Unix-like systems
# or
scoop install eget       # Windows

cd (YOUR-BIN-DIRECTORY)
eget hymkor/bine

Use scoop-installer (Windows only)

scoop install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hymkor/bine/master/bine.json

scoop bucket add hymkor https://github.com/hymkor/scoop-bucket
scoop install bine

Use "go install" (requires Go toolchain)

go install github.com/hymkor/bine/cmd/bine@latest

Note: go install places the executable in $HOME/go/bin or $GOPATH/bin, so you need to add this directory to your $PATH to run bine.

Usage

$ bine [FILES...]

$ bine < in.bin > out.bin

Edit the data and save using - as the file name to write the edited data to standard output.

Key-binding

Cursor Movement

h, BACKSPACE, ARROW-LEFT, Ctrl-B
Move the cursor left
j, ARROW-DOWN, Ctrl-N
Move the cursor down
k, ARROW-UP, Ctrl-P
Move the cursor up
l, SPACE, ARROW-RIGHT, Ctrl-F
Move the cursor right
0 (zero), ^, Ctrl-A
Move the cursor to the beginning of the current line (0 is available in command mode only; see below)
$, Ctrl-E
Move the cursor to the end of the current line
<
Move the cursor to the beginning of the file
>, G
Move the cursor to the end of the file (as far as data has been loaded at that point)
&
Jump to a specified address

Tab
Move the cursor forward to the start of the next UTF-8 character
Shift+Tab
Move the cursor backward to the start of the previous UTF-8 character

Editing

r
Edit the byte under the cursor (the current value is shown at the bottom of the screen; enter a new value via readline)
i
Insert data to the left of the cursor (e.g., 0xFF, U+0000, "string")
a (command mode only)
Insert data to the right of the cursor (e.g., 0xFF, U+0000, "string")
I
Insert 0x00 to the left of the cursor
A
Insert 0x00 to the right of the cursor
x, DEL
Delete the byte under the cursor and save it to the internal buffer
v
Start or end selection mode
y
Copy the selected region to the internal buffer. If nothing is selected, copies the byte under the cursor
d
Delete the selected region and copy it to the internal buffer. If nothing is selected, behaves the same as x
p
Insert data from the internal buffer to the right of the cursor
P
Insert data from the internal buffer to the left of the cursor
R
Toggle direct edit mode. In this mode, pressing 0–9 or a–f directly overwrites the high nibble and then the low nibble of the byte under the cursor. Press R again to return to command mode.

Search

/
Search forward (toward increasing addresses) from the current cursor position
?
Search backward (toward decreasing addresses) from the current cursor position

After pressing / or ?, enter the search pattern in the input field at the bottom of the screen.
You can specify the pattern in the following formats:

U+XXXX
Unicode code point (e.g. U+3042)
0xXX
Hexadecimal byte sequence (e.g. 0xFE 0xFF)
Decimal numbers
Byte values in decimal (e.g. 65 66 67)
"string" or u"string"
Text string (UTF-8; u prefix is optional)

n
Repeat the previous search in the same direction
N
Repeat the previous search in the opposite direction

Display

Meta-U
Change the character encoding to UTF-8 (default)
Meta-A
Change the character encoding to ANSI (the current Windows code page)
Meta-L
Change the character encoding to UTF-16LE
Meta-B
Change the character encoding to UTF-16BE

Meta- means either pressing Alt together with the key, or pressing Esc followed by the key.

Miscellaneous

Ctrl-G
Cancel current mode (selection / direct edit) and return to view mode
u
Undo the last change. Press repeatedly to undo further changes in sequence.
w
Save changes to file
q
Quit. If there are unsaved changes, you will be prompted to save before exiting.

Changelog

Contributing

Bug reports and improvement suggestions are welcome. You may write them in either English or Japanese.
Please write comments in the code and commit messages in English.
If a develop branch exists at the time of your pull request, please target it. Otherwise, master is fine.
Test code and documentation updates that accompany code changes are appreciated, but not required. They can be added later if necessary.

Acknowledgements

spiegel-im-spiegel (Spiegel) - Issue #1

Author

hymkor (HAYAMA Kaoru)