Hexcmp is a very simple program that tells you whether the memory represented in two hex files is equivalent. In other words, even if two hex files are formatted differently, if they contain the same data, hexcmp will recognize that they are the same.
The program will tell you the lowest memory address where the two files differ, and the contents of memory at that address for each file. Note that this may not be the first sequential difference in either hex file, since it is perfectly valid to list records out of order in a hex file.
Hexcmp compiles under Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It probably even works under Microsoft Windows, although I haven't had occasion to test it.
I wrote the program because once I had needed a program like that, and couldn't find one. When I wrote my dis51 8051 disassembly program, I had to write routines to parse a hex file. I found it would be trivial to write hexcmp using those routines.
You can download the hexcmp source for free. It is released under the GNU Public License. See the GNU website for more details.
First, you will need to install libhexfile if you don't already have it. Change to the libhexfile-0.0 directory, edit the Makefile as necessary, and run "make install" as root to install the library.
To compile hexcmp, change to the hexcmp-0.2 directory, then edit the Makefile if necessary. After editing the Makefile, type "make" and you're done.
To run hexcmp, type "hexcmp file1.hex file2.hex". You will probably want to put hexcmp in some bin directory for convenience.
If you don't want to install libhexfile, you can try "make static" from the hexcmp directory.
Please report any bugs by emailing me at davesullins@earthlink.net.
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