How can I append the same byte to a file a specified number of times?

Question

I have the following code:

yes "$(echo -e "\xff")" | head -n 10 > SomeFile.bin

Which writes 10 times 0xFF and 0x0A (newline) to SomeFile.bin. But my objective is to fill the file with FF.

Is there a way to print only consecutive 0xFF values instead? Without adding a newline every time?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 21 '22 at 17:23

1

Here is one way:

printf '\xFF%.s' {1..10} >SomeFile.bin

answered Oct 21 '22 at 17:23

oguz ismail

Can it work with a variable? i.e. `printf '\xFF%.s' {1..$foo} >SomeFile.bin` – JCSB Oct 21 '22 at 17:41
@JCSB not without eval, like `eval "printf '\\xFF%.s' {1..$n}"` – oguz ismail Oct 21 '22 at 18:02

1 Answers1