hacker

README

InkyBlackness Hacker

This is a tool as part of the InkyBlackness project, written in Go. It provides low-level access to the data files of System Shock via a command line interface.

The content of the supported files is documented in the ss-specs sub-project of InkyBlackness. This tool is meant to aid in verification of known and unknown data fields.

Usage

Hacker can be run from any location. After startup, it provides a prompt where you can enter commands.

Command Line Interface

Usage:
  hacker [--run <file>...]
  hacker -h | --help
  hacker --version

Options:
  -h --help     Show this screen.
  --version     Show version.
  --run <file>  Run the specified file. Can be repeated to run several in sequence.

Command Reference

Quit

quit

This command exits the program. Quitting is an instant action, even if there is unsaved data.

Load

load "/path/to/hd/data/files" "/path/to/cd/data/files"

On startup, Hacker has no files loaded. With this command, the names of the data files from the given directory, or directories, are loaded. Hacker does a reference check on the files in the given directories to determine which release they relate to.

The second directory is optional, in case a HD-only release is to be loaded.

For quicker access, it is recommended to have the load command in a text file, which is then passed with the --run parameter at startup.

Example:

> load "/tmp/dosgames/SystemShock/dosbox/SSHOCK/DATA" "/tmp/dosgames/SystemShock/original_cd/cdrom/data"
Loaded release [DOS CD Release]
> _

Change Directory

cd path

When a release was successfully loaded, the data is available in a directory-like hierarchy. The cd command changes the current directory. The path parameter can be any combination of .., / and a directory name. A / at the beginning refers to the root, otherwise the provided path is relative to the current node.

For example,

> cd /hd/mfdart.res/0026
/hd/mfdart.res/0026> cd ../002D
/hd/mfdart.res/002D> _

changes to the HD file mfdart.res, chunk 0x0026 ; The second then switches to 0x002D, also in mfdart.res

For nodes containing serial items (such as chunks with blocks or texture properties), the subnodes are simply 0 up to the number of children (-1). Object property nodes are identified by class-subclass-type, e.g.: 1-3-0, below which the nodes common, generic and specific are available.

File nodes will only be loaded into memory when they are entered. So, although a load command may succeed, loading specific files may not. Once a file has been loaded into memory, changes outside of Hacker are not reflected (e.g. overwriting a save-game file). Restart the application to load the newest file(s) - this is where the --run parameter is useful.

Node Info

info

This command prints out some information on the current node. Parent nodes may also give information on which children are available.

Example:

/cd/cutspal.res> info
ResourceFile: cutspal.res
IDs: 0003 0004 0005 0006 0007 0008 0009 000A 000B 000C 000D 000E 000F 0010 0011 0012 0013 0014
/cd/cutspal.res> _

Dump

dump

For data nodes, this command returns the raw data content as a hexdump.

Example:

/cd/textprop.dat/34> dump
0000  00 00 00 00 22 22 0A 00  00 00 00                 ...."".. ...
/cd/textprop.dat/34> _

The first column is the offset (in hexadecimal), then up to 16 bytes as 2-digit hex values and the ASCII representation of these bytes on the right (if possible, . otherwise)

Diff

diff path

This command compares the raw data of the current node against that of another. The other node is referenced with the given path (see the cd command for a reference on the path).

The result is a dump of both the other node's data (first) and then this node's data. Any difference is highlighted with color.

Put

put offset bytes...

This command, on data nodes, will modify the raw data. The offset parameter is a hexadecimal number, starting with 0, specifying the offset where to put the following bytes. bytes is a blank separated list of 2-digit hexadecimal numbers.

The result is a double-dump of data, both the old and the new, with the changes highlighted in color (similar to the dump command).

This command modifies the data only in memory. To commit the changes to disk, use the save command.

Save

save

This command iterates through all currently loaded files and saves them to disk. It will rewrite the complete files and returns all names of the files that were saved.

This command changes your data files! Remember to keep backups!

License

The project is available under the terms of the New BSD License (see LICENSE file).