Re: read/write arbitrary files

[Michael Snyder <msnyder@vmware.com>]

Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> I'd like to use gdb to examine and update arbitrary files.  In
> particular, I'd like to disassemble and patch files like /dev/mem
> that are not in executable or core formats.
> 
> Is there already a way to do this?  If not, could there be?  This
> was a very useful feature of adb.

It's not really what gdb is good for.
Arbitrary files such as /dev/mem have no symbols and no types.
It should be easy to either use an existing hex editor, or
write one to do this sort of patching.  This tool could be
orders of magnitude less complicated than gdb.