⚡ xvw

A fast, GPU-accelerated binary & hex editor written in Rust.

Built on GPUI (the high-performance GPU UI framework powering Zed).
Engineered to be snappy, intuitive, and versatile for reverse engineering, firmware inspection, and binary format debugging.

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Warning

Alpha Software Notice & Disclaimer
xvw is currently in early alpha stage and has not been fully evaluated or hardened. Please make reliable backups of your files before editing. Use at your own risk.
We actively welcome feedback, bug reports, and contributions! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

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✨ Features at a Glance

• ⚡ Instant Multi-GB File Loading
  Memory-mapped I/O (memmap2) allows gigabyte-sized files and disk dumps to open immediately with negligible RAM usage and zero lag.
• 🧬 Interactive Kaitai Struct Parsing
  Load .ksy format definitions at runtime to dissect complex binary formats (ZIP, ELF, Mach-O, PNG, etc.) with structured tree navigation, inline color highlights, and parsed values.
• ✂️ Custom Logical Line Breaks
  Hit Enter anywhere to break lines at natural packet or record boundaries instead of being locked into a rigid 16-byte grid. Press Cmd+J / Ctrl+J to join lines back.
• 🔍 Real-Time Data Inspector
  Inspect any byte or selection decoded simultaneously into i8–i64, u8–u64 (Little/Big Endian), f32/f64, Unix timestamps, binary bits, and character representations.
• 📊 2D Visual Map & Entropy View
  Render byte values as a 2D bitmap with grayscale, byte-category, and rainbow color modes to visually identify code segments, compressed sections, and encrypted payloads.
• ⚖️ Synchronized Side-by-Side Diff
  Compare two binary files side by side with synchronized scrolling, difference counters, and clear delta highlights.
• 🌐 40+ Text Encodings
  Decode and search strings across UTF-8, UTF-16, Shift-JIS, EUC-JP, GB18030, Big5, ISO-8859 variants, Windows code pages, and legacy character sets.
• 📋 Rich "Copy As" Exports
  Quickly export selections as C/C++ arrays, Rust arrays, JSON arrays, Base64 strings, Hex streams, printable text, or formatted Hex dumps.
• ⌨️ Vim-Inspired Keybindings
  Navigate effortlessly with h/j/k/l, expand selections with Shift modifiers, and search with / across hex patterns, text, and regex.

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📸 Feature Showcase

🧬 Kaitai Struct Binary Analysis

Load format definitions on the fly to inspect fields, offsets, and nested data structures directly mapped over raw bytes.

📊 2D Visual Map / Entropy Inspection

Spot byte patterns, compression boundaries, and encryption blocks with 2D heatmaps and custom palette modes.

⚖️ Side-by-Side Binary Comparison (Diff)

Verify firmware patches, inspect file mutations, and track binary deltas with synchronized dual-pane diffing.

🔍 Real-Time Data Inspector & Decoders

Decode values on the fly across multiple numeric and text representations with configurable endianness.

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust (2024 edition / latest stable)
  Install via rustup.rs:

  curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/funap/xvw.git
cd xvw

# Build and run
cargo run --release

Command-Line Usage

xvw comes with a powerful CLI interface allowing you to launch straight into your target analysis workflow:

# Open a specific binary file
xvw path/to/binary_file.bin

# Open a project folder / workspace
xvw --folder path/to/folder

# Open a file and automatically apply a Kaitai Struct definition
xvw firmware.bin --ksy specs/firmware.ksy

# Compare two binary files side-by-side
xvw --diff original.bin patched.bin

# Open a file directly with a specific sidebar panel
# (Options: files, strings, structure, inspector, map, checksum, bookmarks)
xvw binary.bin --panel map

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⌨️ Keybindings Cheat Sheet

Navigation & Editing

Action	macOS	Linux / Windows
Move Cursor	h / j / k / l or Arrows	h / j / k / l or Arrows
Expand Selection	Shift + h/j/k/l	Shift + h/j/k/l
Jump to Start of File	Cmd + Home / Home	Ctrl + Home / Home
Jump to End of File	Cmd + End / End	Ctrl + End / End
Go to Offset / Address	Cmd + L / Ctrl + G	Ctrl + L / Ctrl + G
Insert Custom Break	Enter	Enter
Join Lines	Cmd + J	Ctrl + J
Reset Custom Breaks	Cmd + Shift + Backspace	Ctrl + Shift + Backspace
Toggle Insert / Overwrite	Insert	Insert

Search & Workspace

Action	macOS	Linux / Windows
Search (Inline)	/ or Cmd + F	/ or Ctrl + F
Search Panel (Scan All)	Cmd + Shift + F	Ctrl + Shift + F
Next / Prev Match	Cmd + G / Cmd + Shift + G	F3 / Shift + F3
Open File Dialog	Cmd + O	Ctrl + O
Open Folder	Cmd + Shift + O	Ctrl + Shift + O
Toggle Left Sidebar	Cmd + B	Ctrl + B
Split Editor (Right / Down)	Cmd + \ / Cmd + Shift + D	Ctrl + \ / Ctrl + Shift + D
Switch Tabs	Cmd + 1 .. Cmd + 9	Ctrl + 1 .. Ctrl + 9
Load Kaitai Struct (.ksy)	Cmd + Shift + S	Ctrl + Shift + S
Toggle Inline Structure	Cmd + Shift + V	Ctrl + Shift + V
Copy as Hex Dump	Cmd + Shift + C	Ctrl + Shift + C
Settings	Cmd + ,	Ctrl + ,

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🌐 Supported Text Encodings

Decode and search binary data with built-in support for 40+ text encodings:

• Unicode & ASCII: UTF-8, UTF-16 LE, UTF-16 BE, ASCII
• Japanese: Shift-JIS (CP932 / Windows-31J), EUC-JP, ISO-2022-JP
• Chinese & Korean: GBK, GB18030, Big5, EUC-KR
• ISO-8859 Family: ISO-8859-1 through ISO-8859-16 (Latin 1–10, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Celtic, etc.)
• Windows Code Pages: Windows-1250 through Windows-1258
• Legacy & Mac: KOI8-R, KOI8-U, Mac OS Roman, IBM866

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are very welcome!

• 🐛 Found a bug or have a suggestion? Please open an issue on GitHub.
• 💡 Want to contribute? Pull requests are always appreciated! Please check existing issues or start a discussion before making large architectural changes.

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

• Themes from gpui-kit.
• Icons from Lucide.