Linux concat binary files

How can I copy several binary files into one file on a Linux system?

I need to copy the content of a folder which contains binary files to one binary file in another directory. In Windows I can just use:

copy file1 + file2 targetfile /B 

I couldn’t find something similar for Linux (I saw an approach with cat , but I’m unsure if this really works for binary files).

2 Answers 2

Unix has no distinction between text and binary files, which is why you can just cat them together:

cat file1 file2 > target_file 

If target_file already exists and you want to append content to it, instead of overwriting, use instead:

cat file1 file2 >> target_file 

Unfortunately this messes up the binary data. I guess it is caused by some encoding issue? ASCII strings inside the binary data are ok in the resulting file but bytes outside the ASCII range are messed up (I guess they are replaced by UTF-8 replacements?). How can I tell cat to ignore encodings and just concat the files byte per byte?

From what I read everywhere cat should not care about encodings and just work with binary files. But it doesn’t in my case. I use /bin/cat inside an appveyor Ubuntu environment. Maybe they use another cat?

Side note: if target_file exists in advance and you want to append content to it, rather than overwriting it, use the >> operator instead of >.

@ferdymercury Please do consider editing the answer to include the >> part; it saved me today. Typically comments aren’t read & thus would help someone as well 🙂

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Concatenating Files in Linux

Linux is an operating system, it become popular for its open-source nature, flexibility, and reliability. Including its many features, Linux also provides powerful tools for managing files and data, including ability to concatenate files. The concatenation is process of joining two or more files together, creating single file that contains contents of all original files.

In this article, we will explore different methods of concatenating files in Linux, including examples and subheadings.

Concatenating Files Using cat Command

The cat command is a powerful tool for managing text files in Linux. It can be used to create new files, view contents of existing files, and concatenate files. syntax for using cat command to concatenate files is as follows −

In this example, file1 and file2 are two files that we want to concatenate, and newfile is name of new file that will contain concatenated contents. «>» symbol is used to redirect output of cat command to a new file.

For instance, let us assume we have two text files, file1.txt and file2.txt. We can concatenate them using following command −

$ cat file1.txt file2.txt > newfile.txt

This command will create a new file named newfile.txt that contains concatenated contents of file1.txt and file2.txt.

Concatenating Files Using cat Command with Wildcards

The cat command can also be used with wildcards to concatenate multiple files at once. A wildcard is a special character that represents one or more characters in a filename. most commonly used wildcard is asterisk (*), which represents any number of characters.

The syntax for using cat command with wildcards to concatenate files is as follows −

In this example, file* represents any number of files that start with word «file.» «>» symbol is used to redirect output of cat command to a new file named newfile.

For example, if we have three files named file1.txt, file2.txt, and file3.txt, we can concatenate them using following command −

This command will create a new file named newfile.txt that contains concatenated contents of all three files.

Concatenating Files Using paste Command

The paste command is another tool that can be used to concatenate files in Linux. Unlike cat command, which simply joins contents of two or more files together, paste command merges contents of two or more files side by side. syntax for using paste command to concatenate files is as follows −

paste file1 file2 > newfile

In this example, file1 and file2 are two files that we want to concatenate side by side, and newfile is name of new file that will contain concatenated contents.

For example, if we have two text files, file1.txt and file2.txt, we can concatenate them side by side using following command −

$ paste file1.txt file2.txt > newfile.txt

This command will create a new file named newfile.txt that contains merged contents of file1.txt and file2.txt side by side.

Concatenating Binary Files Using dd Command

The dd command is a powerful tool for managing binary files in Linux. It can be used to create new binary files, view contents of existing binary files, and concatenate binary files. syntax for using dd command to concatenate binary files is as follows −

dd if=file1 of=newfile bs=1M conv=notrunc dd if=file2 of=newfile bs=1M seek=1 conv=notr

In this example, file1 is first binary file that we want to concatenate, newfile is name of new binary file that will contain concatenated contents, and bs=1M specifies block size to be used for operation.

The «if» parameter specifies input file, while «of» parameter specifies output file. «notrunc» parameter prevents existing data in output file from being truncated, while «seek» parameter is used to seek to a specific offset in output file.

For example, if we have two binary files, file1.bin and file2.bin, we can concatenate them using following commands −

$ dd if=file1.bin of=newfile.bin bs=1M conv=notrunc $ dd if=file2.bin of=newfile.bin bs=1M seek=1 conv=notrunc

The first command creates a new binary file named newfile.bin that contains contents of file1.bin. second command appends contents of file2.bin to newfile.bin, starting at offset 1.

In addition to commands discussed in this article, there are several other tools available in Linux that can be used to concatenate files. For example, awk command can be used to join two or more files based on a common field. join command can also be used to merge two files based on a common field, while comm command can be used to compare two sorted files line by line.

It is important to note that when concatenating files, it is important to ensure that resulting file is still in a usable format. This means that files should be of same format, such as both being text files or both being binary files. Additionally, it is important to ensure that files are concatenated in correct order, so that resulting file is complete and accurate.

Another important consideration when concatenating files is encoding of files. For text files, it is important to ensure that encoding is consistent across all files to prevent issues with special characters and formatting. In some cases, it may be necessary to convert encoding of files before concatenating them to ensure that resulting file is usable.

Conclusion

In conclusion, concatenating files in Linux is a powerful and flexible way to manage files and data. cat, paste, and dd commands provide different methods for concatenating text and binary files. By using these commands, users can combine multiple files into a single file, creating a more efficient and manageable way to store and access data. Knowing how to concatenate files in Linux can be a useful skill for developers, system administrators, and anyone else who works with files and data on a regular basis.

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How To Combine Binary Files in Linux

In the Linux binary directory, the files which contain machine code or compiled source data are ‌ known as binary files. The content of binary files is not in a human-readable format, as a specific program only interprets these files. Any program can look for the data to a particular location within the file, so the binary files are not in an externally recognizable format.

You can execute these files in the system, so it is also called executable files. You can use common and single-user mode commands for binary files, such as ls, cd, cp, and cat. So, let’s look at the simple approaches to combining the binary files in Linux.

How To Combine Binary Files in Linux

Combining two or more binary files in Linux is the most straightforward task. You can combine binary files using a single command-line method. Let’s use the “cat” command to join or merge the binaries.

The cat command’s most common use is to print a file’s contents to the standard output stream. It combines the files and prints the result to standard output. Moreover, the cat command allows the user to write some text within the file.

Using the cat command, you can combine binaries using the following command:

Here, we have used the redirection symbol “>” to write the combined output to a file. We combine three binary files into the fourth binary file, or we can say that we put the data of 3 binaries in the 4th.

To combine the binary files, open the terminal and verify the present binary files using the following “cd” command:

You can check the present binaries available in your home directory from the output. For example, we combine the 1st and 2nd binary in the 3rd binary. Use the “cat” command to accomplish this:

After running the previous command, you will not see any output in the terminal. However, when you go to your home directory, you ‌ see that your binary files have been combined.

Conclusion

Binary files contain any unformatted and formatted data in binary format. The system directly uses these files, but users can’t read them. Binaries are more efficient than text files in access speed, store values (using numeric format), memory, etc.

The purpose of this guide was to explain how to combine binary files in Linux. Binary files occupy less space for the same data as compared to text files. Here, we have described how to combine binary files with the help of the cat command.

About the author

Prateek Jangid

A passionate Linux user for personal and professional reasons, always exploring what is new in the world of Linux and sharing with my readers.

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Как объединить бинарные файлы в Linux

В двоичном каталоге Linux файлы, содержащие машинный код или скомпилированные исходные данные, называются двоичными файлами. Содержимое двоичных файлов не в удобочитаемом формате, так как конкретная программа только интерпретирует эти файлы. Любая программа может искать данные в определенном месте внутри файла, поэтому двоичные файлы не имеют внешнего распознаваемого формата.

Вы можете выполнять эти файлы в системе, поэтому они также называются исполняемыми файлами. Вы можете использовать общие и однопользовательские команды режима для двоичных файлов, такие как ls, cd, cp и cat. Итак, давайте рассмотрим простые подходы к объединению бинарных файлов в Linux.

Как объединить бинарные файлы в Linux

Объединение двух или более бинарных файлов в Linux — самая простая задача. Вы можете комбинировать двоичные файлы, используя один метод командной строки. Давайте воспользуемся командой «cat», чтобы соединить или объединить двоичные файлы.

Чаще всего команда cat используется для печати содержимого файла в стандартный поток вывода. Он объединяет файлы и выводит результат на стандартный вывод. Более того, команда cat позволяет пользователю написать некоторый текст в файле.

Используя команду cat, вы можете комбинировать двоичные файлы с помощью следующей команды:

Здесь мы использовали символ перенаправления «>», чтобы записать комбинированный вывод в файл. Мы объединяем три бинарных файла в четвертый бинарный файл, или можно сказать, что мы помещаем данные 3-х бинарников в 4-й.

Чтобы объединить двоичные файлы, откройте терминал и проверьте существующие двоичные файлы, используя следующую команду «cd»:

Вы можете проверить существующие двоичные файлы, доступные в вашем домашнем каталоге, из вывода. Например, мы объединяем 1-й и 2-й бинарники в 3-й бинарник. Для этого используйте команду «cat»:

кошка f1.bin f2.bin f3.bin > f4.bin

После выполнения предыдущей команды вы не увидите никакого вывода в терминале. Однако, когда вы переходите в свой домашний каталог, вы видите, что ваши двоичные файлы были объединены.

Вывод

Двоичные файлы содержат любые неформатированные и форматированные данные в двоичном формате. Система напрямую использует эти файлы, но пользователи не могут их читать. Двоичные файлы более эффективны, чем текстовые файлы, по скорости доступа, хранению значений (с использованием числового формата), памяти и т. д.

Целью этого руководства было объяснить, как объединять двоичные файлы в Linux. Двоичные файлы занимают меньше места для тех же данных по сравнению с текстовыми файлами. Здесь мы описали, как объединять бинарные файлы с помощью команды cat.

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