c - how to get hexdump of a structure data

Question

 ....
 finalize(char *hdrs, sendip_data *headers[], int index,
                    sendip_data *data, sendip_data *pack)
 {

 ........

For debugging purposes I want a hex dump of the data and pack structures, which are of type sendip_data, a really complex structure. Actually they contain some binary information so I am not sure whether output of my project is correct or not. So for debugging purposes, I want to write the data into a file so that I can use hexdump as follows -

$hexdump -C file.txt

Also as this is a run time generation of a n/w packet so I am also not sure about the length of data and pack structure which I think fread / fwrite will require ..So please suggest me something.

Answer 1

The following code will give you a hex dump of arbitrary memory from within your code.

#include <stdio.h>

// Usage:
//     hexDump(desc, addr, len, perLine);
//         desc:    if non-NULL, printed as a description before hex dump.
//         addr:    the address to start dumping from.
//         len:     the number of bytes to dump.
//         perLine: number of bytes on each output line.

void hexDump (
    const char * desc,
    const void * addr,
    const int len,
    int perLine
) {
    // Silently ignore silly per-line values.

    if (perLine < 4 || perLine > 64) perLine = 16;

    int i;
    unsigned char buff[perLine+1];
    const unsigned char * pc = (const unsigned char *)addr;

    // Output description if given.

    if (desc != NULL) printf ("%s:
", desc);

    // Length checks.

    if (len == 0) {
        printf("  ZERO LENGTH
");
        return;
    }
    if (len < 0) {
        printf("  NEGATIVE LENGTH: %d
", len);
        return;
    }

    // Process every byte in the data.

    for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
        // Multiple of perLine means new or first line (with line offset).

        if ((i % perLine) == 0) {
            // Only print previous-line ASCII buffer for lines beyond first.

            if (i != 0) printf ("  %s
", buff);

            // Output the offset of current line.

            printf ("  %04x ", i);
        }

        // Now the hex code for the specific character.

        printf (" %02x", pc[i]);

        // And buffer a printable ASCII character for later.

        if ((pc[i] < 0x20) || (pc[i] > 0x7e)) // isprint() may be better.
            buff[i % perLine] = '.';
        else
            buff[i % perLine] = pc[i];
        buff[(i % perLine) + 1] = '';
    }

    // Pad out last line if not exactly perLine characters.

    while ((i % perLine) != 0) {
        printf ("   ");
        i++;
    }

    // And print the final ASCII buffer.

    printf ("  %s
", buff);
}

// Very simple test harness.

int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {
    char my_str[] = "a char string greater than 16 chars";
    hexDump ("my_str", &my_str, sizeof (my_str), 16);
    return 0;
}

You pass into hexDump a description, memory address, length, and how many bytes you want on each line.

It will output a hex dump (including character data) for examination. When you run it with the included main, the output is:

my_str:
  0000  61 20 63 68 61 72 20 73 74 72 69 6e 67 20 67 72  a char string gr
  0010  65 61 74 65 72 20 74 68 61 6e 20 31 36 20 63 68  eater than 16 ch
  0020  61 72 73 00                                      ars.