xxd from vim replaces busybox xxd

Buxybox has the 'xxd' utility, but a couple of times recently I found it to be inadequate. A few days ago was compiling a package, which failed due to xxd not supporting the "-i" option. So, yet another busybox applet has to get replaced with the full utility.

The full xxd is in the vim package. Vim is a text-mode text editor, with quite a good imitation of a GUI. It has it's fans. Vim is available via the package manager, but I noticed something...

The vim package is compiled in OpenEmbedded, and for some unknown reason the executable is packaged as /usr/bin/vim.vim -- very odd, and it breaks everything, as there are symlinks, for example /usr/bin/gvim, that point to the non-existent /usr/bin/vim

I have fixed the recipe in OE, but for now, if you are a vim fan, when you install it, rename /usr/bin/vim.vim to /usr/bin/vim

In woofQ, have added 'xxd' to the package list, just extracts that one utility out of the vim package. So that will be in the next release of EasyOS.

Why is xxd so widely used? Here is the man page:

https://linux.die.net/man/1/xxd

The feedback after releasing Easy 3.2 has been most helpful:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=4896

...if you are running Easy 3.2, or thinking of it, please browse through this thread.

I am working on fixes for some buglets. Printing for example. So expect 3.2.1 soon. But, in the case of printing, the forum thread does have a workaround that can be applied to 3.2.  

Tags: easy