Tool, language and decoders for working with binary data.
TLDR: it aims to be jq, hexdump, dd and gdb for files combined into one.
Basic usage is fq . file
, fq d file
or fq 'some query' file ...
.
For details see usage.md.
fq is inspired by the jq tool and language and allows you to work with binary formats in the same way. In addition to using jq expressions it can also present decoded tree structures, transform, slice and concatenate binary data. It also supports nested formats and features an interactive REPL with auto-completion of functions and names.
It was originally designed to query, inspect and debug media codecs and containers like MP4, FLAC and JPEG but has since been extended to support a variety of formats like executables, packet captures (with TCP reassembly) and serialization formats like JSON, YAML, XML, CBOR, protobuf. In addition it also has functions to work with URLs, convert to/from hex, number bases, search for patterns etc.
aac_frame, adts, adts_frame, aiff, amf0, apev2, apple_bookmark, ar, asn1_ber, av1_ccr, av1_frame, av1_obu, avc_annexb, avc_au, avc_dcr, avc_nalu, avc_pps, avc_sei, avc_sps, avi, avro_ocf, bencode, bitcoin_blkdat, bitcoin_block, bitcoin_script, bitcoin_transaction, bits, bplist, bsd_loopback_frame, bson, bytes, bzip2, caff, cbor, csv, dns, dns_tcp, elf, ether8023_frame, exif, fairplay_spc, fit, flac, flac_frame, flac_metadatablock, flac_metadatablocks, flac_picture, flac_streaminfo, gif, gzip, hevc_annexb, hevc_au, hevc_dcr, hevc_nalu, hevc_pps, hevc_sps, hevc_vps, html, icc_profile, icmp, icmpv6, id3v1, id3v11, id3v2, ipv4_packet, ipv6_packet, jp2c, jpeg, json, jsonl, leveldb_descriptor, leveldb_log, leveldb_table, luajit, macho, macho_fat, markdown, matroska, midi, moc3, mp3, mp3_frame, mp3_frame_vbri, mp3_frame_xing, mp4, mpeg_asc, mpeg_es, mpeg_pes, mpeg_pes_packet, mpeg_spu, mpeg_ts, msgpack, negentropy, nes, ogg, ogg_page, opentimestamps, opus_packet, pcap, pcapng, pg_btree, pg_control, pg_heap, png, prores_frame, protobuf, protobuf_widevine, pssh_playready, rtmp, sll2_packet, sll_packet, tap, tar, tcp_segment, tiff, tls, toml, tzif, tzx, udp_datagram, vorbis_comment, vorbis_packet, vp8_frame, vp9_cfm, vp9_frame, vpx_ccr, wasm, wav, webp, xml, yaml, zip
It can also work with some common text formats like URLs, hex, base64, PEM etc and for some serialization formats like XML, YAML, etc. it can transform both from and to jq values.
For details see formats.md and usage.md.
Use one of the methods listed below or download a pre-built release for macOS, Linux or Windows. Unarchive it and move the executable to PATH
etc.
On macOS if you don't install using one of the method below then you might have to manually allow the binary to run. This can be done by trying to run the binary, ignore the warning and then go into security preference and allow it. Same can be done with this command:
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine fq && spctl --add fq
brew install wader/tap/fq
On macOS, fq
can also be installed via MacPorts. More details here.
sudo port install fq
fq
can be installed via scoop.
scoop install fq
fq
can be installed from the extra repository using pacman:
pacman -S fq
You can also build and install the development (VCS) package using an AUR helper:
paru -S fq-git
nix-shell -p fq
Use the fq port.
Currently in edge testing but should work fine in stable also.
apk add -X http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing fq
Make sure you have go 1.22 or later installed.
To install directly from git repository (no git clone needed):
# build and install latest release
go install github.com/wader/fq@latest
# build and install latest master
go install github.com/wader/fq@master
# copy binary to $PATH if needed
cp "$(go env GOPATH)/bin/fq" /usr/local/bin
To build, run and test from source:
# build and run
go run .
# build and run with arguments
go run . -d mp3 . file.mp3
# just build
go build -o fq .
# run all tests and build binary
make test fq
See dev.md
This project would not have been possible without itchyny's jq implementation gojq. I also want to thank HexFiend for inspiration and ideas and stedolan for inventing the jq language.
tshark -T json
).mediainfo --Output=JSON
and mediainfo --Details=1
).See TODO.md
fq
is distributed under the terms of the MIT License.
See the LICENSE file for license details.
Licenses of direct dependencies: