binary-inspector

Shows byte-level details of a local file for developers investigating unfamiliar formats.

What it does

• Hex dumps.
• Signature detection.
• Printable strings.
• Entropy and byte frequency.
• Hex-pattern search.

Quickstart

Prerequisites: Node.js >=18 and npm. The checkout below pins the source used for this documentation.

git clone https://github.com/NickCirv/binary-inspector.git
cd binary-inspector
git checkout 2bb01807adee38706aab24a8c017b3a3aa811978
node index.js package.json --length 64

Expected behavior (illustrative, not captured): Prints a hex view of the first 64 bytes of the repository manifest.

Examples are source-inspected, not runtime-tested. See the research record for verification gaps.

Boundaries and data

Magic-byte detection is a fixed signature lookup, not a complete file-format parser. Entropy and printable strings are clues, not malware determinations. Reads the file into memory.

Development

The manifest defines npm test as:

node --test

The captured suite is a smoke check, not end-to-end behavior coverage. Examples include “entry is valid JavaScript”, “--help exits 0”. Tests were not run for this documentation revision.

See implementation and command reference for the package scripts and inspected interfaces, and research record for the pinned source, document decisions and unresolved checks.

License and contact

See LICENSE for the original terms and attribution. Legal text is unchanged.

Nicholas Ashkar · Discuss a project