Is there a way that the Bash recognizes hex numbers in command lines? Take for instance 'dd if=file1 of=file2 bs=1 skip=0x1BE'.

dd if=file1 of=file2 bs=1 skip=$(echo $((0x1BE)))

You could have found the answer yourself just googling for:

bash hex to decimal conversion

as that's what I did.

PS Maybe the command in your example works as is, but then it's a feature of dd, not of bash. Did you try?

Yes I did. About your finding, much more straightforward translate to base ten with my pocket calculator but thanks anyways. Indeed I looked into the bash man page. There are some references to hex base but none of them seemed to apply. By the way, LQ is not an oracle. Nor is it a developer's mailing list. It's just LQ [smiling face].

As far as the Shell Command Language is in concern, the primary source of information is not bash's manual but the Shell & Utilities volume of The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7 aka the POSIX specification, of which bash is an implementation, plus extensions. Reading the specification it is clear that '0x1BE' is just a token for the shell, and that to interpret it as an hexadecimal number you need to submit it to an arithmetic expansion.

Minor note: the echo is not needed. dd if=file1 of=file2 bs=1 skip=$(( 0x1BE )) should work.

2 members found this post helpful.

That's right, thanks for the heads up. I am used to complicate things uselessly

Oh and printf could be used also, as specified in POSIX, in our case the bash builtin command version of printf.

Which is paradoxical I think, because hex (or rather binary but it's almos the same thing) is the numeric system the machine understands.

'bash is not an assembler': bash is the bulkiest language I've seen in my life. I the SEE ALSO section of the man page there are mentioned sh (1) and csh (1), but neither sh nor its man page are anywhere to be seen. Maybe in the first releases of slack there is one.

If you don't like bash, you may use another shell.

Type this:You will see that actually Slackware ships no less than five shells, each whith its own man page.

Want more? You can get dash, the C shell from bsd or the MidnightBSD Korn Shell at no additional cost.

Since I'm in a nit-picky mood, the OP's statement...
...is true as written.

There's no man page for sh and there is no Bourne shell executable; there's a link to bash which is compatible.

1 members found this post helpful.

Anyone uses what one wants and can get. Personally, I tend to stay POSIX compliant as much as possible and avoid extensions if that doesn't lead to something way too convoluted. That doesn't prevent me to use bash, but not all features of it. I am far to know all its features anyway but don't care.

OK, now: Is sh, the Bourne shell, too old for slackware 14.0?

I don't know it it can be compiled on Slackware 14.0, but you could try this version (for Unix V7. That's the only one I was able to find).

EDIT. Actually, there's also this one. but I don't know if it differs from the genuine one, neither in what respect.

PS You might also want to have a look at this discussion. If I can trust what is said there, there can be two reasons for which the Bourne Shell or one of its close derivatives is not shipped in "Unix like" OS:

• A license issue
• That it be not POSIX compliant.

But at it seems logical that a POSIX compliant shell can be found from /bin/sh, this is usually a link to another shell (bash in Slackware's case).

1 members found this post helpful.

From a newbie to a veteran: is one expected to download all of those files one at a time?