Generating Intel Hex Files Based on a Given Length Using Srec_Cat

The 'standard' binary files for many tools are S19, binary, or Intel Hex files. Especially for S19 and Intel Hex, it can be useful to control the amount of data per line. By default, the GNU objcopy creates files with a line length of 44 characters:

Default objcopy binary file line length

But it is possible to have Intel Hex files with a custom line length using the SRecord utility, and this is what this article is about.

First, use the GNU ' objcopy' to generate a Intel Hex file (or use the MCUXpresso IDE for this). The following line generates the Intel Hex file from an ELF/Dwarf (.axf) file:

arm-none-eabi-objcopy -v -O ihex app.axf app.hex

This generates a 'default' Intel Hex file with a line length of 44 characters:

Default objcopy binary file line length

Then, use the srec_cat tool from the SRecord package with the  -line-length option:

srec_cat app.hex -intel -output new.hex -Intel -line-length=64

With this, I have an Intel Hex file with a different line length — in this case, 64 characters:

Intel Hex File with longer lines

That's it!

The SRecord tools are very versatile to convert and manipulate binary files. To learn more, have a look at the links below.

Happy Inteling!

Links

• SRecord Tool on SourceForge
• GNU objcopy
• MCUXpresso IDE: S-Record, Intel Hex, and Binary Files
• Converting Binary Files to Intel Hex Format with the SRecord Tool
• S-Record, Intel Hex, and Binary Files
• Merging S19 Files wir srec_cat