zigescape

A tool for converting between binary data and Zig string literals.

The original motivation for this was to be able to easily turn inputs found via fuzz testing into strings that can be used in Zig test cases (like in the tests added by this commit).

Basic example (more can be found below):

$ echo '00 01 02 03 04' | xxd -r -p | zigescape
"\x00\x01\x02\x03\x04"

or with the --hex option, this can be done directly:

$ zigescape --hex "00 01 02 03 04"
"\x00\x01\x02\x03\x04"

Building / Installation

Precompiled binaries

Go to the latest release
Download the relevant asset for your OS
Rename to zigescape or zigescape.exe and give it executable permission (if necessary on your OS)
Move the executable somewhere in your PATH

From Source

Requires latest master of Zig.

zig build
The compiled binary will be in zig-out/bin
mv or ln the binary somewhere in your PATH

Usage

Usage: zigescape [-hsx] [-o <PATH>] <INPUT>

<INPUT>: Either a path to a file, or a Zig string literal (if using --string),
         or a series of hex bytes in string format (if using --hex).
         If <INPUT> is not specified, then stdin is used.

Available options:

-h, --help             Display this help and exit.

-o, --output <PATH>    Output file path (stdout is used if not specified).

-s, --string           Specifies that the input is a Zig string literal.
                       Output will be the parsed string.

-x, --hex              Specifies that the input is a series of hex bytes
                       in string format (e.g. "0A B4 10").
                       Output will be a Zig string literal.

Examples

Converting to a string literal:

zigescape path/to/file

zigescape < path/to/file

or, if you want to output to a file:

zigescape path/to/file -o path/to/outfile

or, if you want to convert from a series of hex bytes in string format:

zigescape --hex "00 01 02 03 04"

Converting from string literal

Note: shell escaping of arguments can mess with the string literal before it gets parsed, so it's best to use single quotes to bypass shell escaping.

zigescape --string '"hello world\n"'

The double quotes are optional, zigescape will add them if they are missing:

zigescape --string 'hello world\n'

To convert from a series of hex bytes to a string literal and then into a binary file:

zigescape --hex "00 01 02 03 04" | zigescape --string -o outfile.bin

Some silly examples

cating a file by converting it to a string literal and then parsing it to stdout:

zigescape path/to/file | zigescape --string

Copying a file by converting it to a string literal and then parsing it:

zigescape path/to/file.orig | zigescape --string -o path/to/file.copy

squeek502 / zigescape