convert binary data into hex string for C program

Question

I have a small binary image, that needs to be represented in a C program. The representation will be like:

static const char[] = {0x1, 0x2, 0x3, 0x4...};

(so, the bytes will be represented as a series of chars)

How do I convert a binary file into a nice 0x..,0x.. string? Is there a program to do this?

Answer 1

Use the xxd utility:

$ xxd -i binary.bin > binary.c

Will create binary.c with the following content:

unsigned char binary_bin[] = {
  0x01, 0x02, 0x03, 0x04,   . . .
  . . .
};
unsigned int binary_bin_len = 123456;