OD(1) General Commands Manual OD(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

od - Dump files in octal and other formats

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**od** \[OPTION]... \[--] \[FILENAME]...  
**od** \[-abcdDefFhHiIlLoOsxX] \[FILENAME] \[\[+]\[0x]OFFSET\[.]\[b]]  
**od** --traditional \[OPTION]... \[FILENAME] \[\[+]\[0x]OFFSET\[.]\[b] \[\[+]\[0x]LABEL\[.]\[b]]]

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Dump files in octal and other formats

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**--help**](#help)

Print help information.

[**-A**, **--address-radix** *<RADIX>*](#A)

Select the base in which file offsets are printed.

[**-j**, **--skip-bytes** *<BYTES>*](#j)

Skip bytes input bytes before formatting and writing.

[**-N**, **--read-bytes** *<BYTES>*](#N)

limit dump to BYTES input bytes

[**--endian** *<big|little>*](#endian)

byte order to use for multi-byte formats

*Possible values:*

- big
- little

[**-S**, **--strings** \[*<BYTES>*\]](#S)

output strings of at least BYTES graphic chars. 3 is assumed when BYTES is not specified.

[**-a**](#a)

named characters, ignoring high-order bit

[**-b**](#b)

octal bytes

[**-c**](#c)

ASCII characters or backslash escapes

[**-d**](#d)

unsigned decimal 2-byte units

[**-D**](#D)

unsigned decimal 4-byte units

[**-o**](#o)

octal 2-byte units

[**-I**](#I)

decimal 8-byte units

[**-L**](#L)

decimal 8-byte units

[**-i**](#i)

decimal 4-byte units

[**-l**](#l)

decimal 8-byte units

[**-x**](#x)

hexadecimal 2-byte units

[**-h**](#h)

hexadecimal 2-byte units

[**-O**](#O)

octal 4-byte units

[**-s**](#s)

decimal 2-byte units

[**-X**](#X)

hexadecimal 4-byte units

[**-H**](#H)

hexadecimal 4-byte units

[**-e**](#e)

floating point double precision (64-bit) units

[**-f**](#f)

floating point single precision (32-bit) units

[**-F**](#F)

floating point double precision (64-bit) units

[**-t**, **--format** *<TYPE>*](#t)

select output format or formats

[**-v**, **--output-duplicates**](#v)

do not use * to mark line suppression

[**-w**, **--width** \[*<BYTES>*\]](#w)

output BYTES bytes per output line. 32 is implied when BYTES is not specified.

[**--traditional**](#traditional)

compatibility mode with one input, offset and label.

[**-V**, **--version**](#V)

Print version

# [EXTRA](#EXTRA)

Displays data in various human-readable formats. If multiple formats are specified, the output will contain all formats in the order they appear on the command line. Each format will be printed on a new line. Only the line containing the first format will be prefixed with the offset.

If no filename is specified, or it is "-", stdin will be used. After a "--", no more options will be recognized. This allows for filenames starting with a "-".

If a filename is a valid number which can be used as an offset in the second form, you can force it to be recognized as a filename if you include an option like "-j0", which is only valid in the first form.

RADIX is one of o,d,x,n for octal, decimal, hexadecimal or none.

BYTES is decimal by default, octal if prefixed with a "0", or hexadecimal if prefixed with "0x". The suffixes b, KB, K, MB, M, GB, G, will multiply the number with 512, 1000, 1024, 1000^2, 1024^2, 1000^3, 1024^3, 1000^2, 1024^2.

OFFSET and LABEL are octal by default, hexadecimal if prefixed with "0x" or decimal if a "." suffix is added. The "b" suffix will multiply with 512.

TYPE contains one or more format specifications consisting of:  
a for printable 7-bits ASCII  
c for utf-8 characters or octal for undefined characters  
d\[SIZE] for signed decimal  
f\[SIZE] for floating point  
o\[SIZE] for octal  
u\[SIZE] for unsigned decimal  
x\[SIZE] for hexadecimal SIZE is the number of bytes which can be the number 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16,  
or C, S, I, L for 1, 2, 4, 8 bytes for integer types,  
or F, D, L for 4, 8, 16 bytes for floating point. Any type specification can have a "z" suffix, which will add a ASCII dump at  
the end of the line.

If an error occurred, a diagnostic message will be printed to stderr, and the exit code will be non-zero.

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

2026-10-29

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Document: od(1) from uutils 0.12.0-r5 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils