Re: Searching in binary files

[zentara]

How about a "sniffing dog" approach(or fingerprints?). Break your search string into small fragments, but long enough to be fairly unique. Then search for those fragments in a small sliding chunks of the big file. If a fragment is found, check to see if the adjacent fragments are there. If the fragment is found near the beginning or end of the sliding chunk, load in the appropriate adjacent chunk and retest.

[BrowserUk]

Sorry zentra, I don't quite follow. What's the advantage in searching for several smaller bits in the buffer over searching for one bigger bit?

[zentara]

The advantage is that the regex you are running over the sliding binary chunks will be smaller, and (I think) therefore faster. So I figured it would be more efficient on big files. If it's a really big file, most chunks won't match, so why test a regex string of length 1000, when a test on length 250 will give a quick "sniff", indicating whether you should dig deeper at that general area.

But as always, I defer to your greater experience and wisdom. :-)

[BrowserUk]

But as always, I defer to your greater experience and wisdom. :-)

All I've got in abundance is age!