Hex to Binary conversion in bash

Question

I\'m trying to convert a series of bytes from hex to bin using bash. but I keep getting (seemingly random) \"(standard_in) 1: syntax error\" replies from the following code:

Answer 1

Try this:

for j in c4 97 91 8c 85 87 c4 90 8c 8d 9a 83 81
do
    BIN=$(echo "obase=2; ibase=16; ${j^^}" | bc )
    echo $BIN
done

Answer 2

Here's the script I use:

#!/bin/bash
# SCRIPT:  hex2binary.sh
# USAGE:   hex2binary.sh Hex_Number(s)
# PURPOSE: Hex to Binary Conversion. Takes input as command line
#          arguments.
#####################################################################
#                      Script Starts Here                           #
#####################################################################

if [ $# -eq 0 ]
then
    echo "Argument(s) not supplied "
    echo "Usage: hex2binary.sh hex_number(s)"
else
    echo -e "\033[1mHEX                 \t\t BINARY\033[0m"

    while [ $# -ne 0 ]
    do
        DecNum=`printf "%d" $1`
        Binary=
        Number=$DecNum

        while [ $DecNum -ne 0 ]
        do
            Bit=$(expr $DecNum % 2)
            Binary=$Bit$Binary
            DecNum=$(expr $DecNum / 2)
        done

        echo -e "$Number              \t\t $Binary"
        shift
        # Shifts command line arguments one step.Now $1 holds second argument
        unset Binary
    done

fi

Answer 3

BC is a bit sensitive to case for hex values, change to uppercase and it should work

for j in C4 97 91 8C 85 87 C4 90 8C 8D 9A 83 81
do
        BIN=$(echo "obase=2; ibase=16; $j" | bc )
        echo $BIN
done

Output:

11000100
10010111
10010001
10001100
10000101
10000111
11000100
10010000
10001100
10001101
10011010
10000011
10000001

Answer 4

I came up with this:

printf converts to hex, xxd -r -p takes the ascii hex stream and makes it actual binary

dumping with hexdump to prove it worked...

printf "%016x" 53687091200 | xxd -r -p | hexdump -C