DESCRIPTION
This format is also known as the Ascii-Space-Hex or Ascii-Hex-Space format. If you know who invented this format, please let me know. If you have a better or more complete description, I'd like to know that, too.The file starts with a start-of-text (STX or Control-B) character (0x02). Everything before the STX is ignored.
Each data byte is represented as 2 hexadecimal characters, followed by an "execution character". The default execution character is a space, although many programs which write this format omit the space character immediately preceding end-of-line.
The address for data bytes is set by using a sequence of $Annnn, characters, where nnnn is the 4-character ascii representation of the address. The comma is required. There is no need for an address record unless there are gaps. Implicitly, the file starts a address 0 if no address is set before the first data byte.
The file ends with an end-of-text (ETX or Control-C) character (0x03). Everything following the ETX is ignored.
It is also possible to specify a running 16-bit checksum using a sequence of $Snnnn, characters, although this usually appears after the ETX character and is thus often ignored.
Variant Forms
In addition to a space character, the execution character can also be percent (%) called "ascii-hex-percent" format, apostrophe (') or comma (,) called "ascii-hex-comma" format. The file must use the same execution character throughout.If the execution character is a comma, the address and checksum commands are terminated by a dot (.) rather than a comma (,).
Size Multiplier
In general, binary data will expand in sized by approximately 3.0 times when represented with this format.EXAMPLE
Here is an example ascii-hex file. It contains the data "Hello, World[rq] to be loaded at address 0x1000.-
^B $A1000, 48 65 6C 6C 6F 2C 20 57 6F 72 6C 64 0A ^C
COPYRIGHT
srec_cat version 1.58Copyright (C) 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Peter Miller
The
srec_cat
program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY;
for details use the 'srec_cat -VERSion License' command.
This is free software
and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions;
for details use the 'srec_cat -VERSion License' command.