UPXDUMP User Manual

Chapter 1: Introduction

In tradition of our products released earlier UPXDUMP is a small tool serving only one specific purpose. UPXDUMP is a replacement for the undocumented --file-info option in the free, high-performance executable packer UPX.

The main reason to write UPXDUMP was to show a file's compression method in a human-readable manner. A second reason was to practice Pascal programming. Yes, really!

UPXDUMP can also handle malformed executables created by a broken DOS port of UPX 2.93. (upx --file-info fails on these.)

UPXDUMP comes in these variants:

A small 16-bit version (file dos16\upxdump.exe) suitable for DOS computer systems prior to the 80386 microprocessor.
For newer DOS systems there is a 32-bit version (file dos32\upxdump.exe), that additionally supports long file names.
For Windows systems there is a 32-bit console version (file win32\upxdump.exe).

Otherwise there is no difference between these variants.

Chapter 2: Licence

UPXDUMP is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

UPXDUMP is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; see the file licence.txt.

Chapter 3: System requirements

3.1 For the 16-bit DOS version

Intel 8086/88 microprocessor (or compatibles)
Microsoft MS-DOS 3.0 (or compatibles)

3.2 For the 32-bit DOS version

Intel 80386 microprocessor (or compatibles)
Microsoft MS-DOS 3.0 (or compatibles)
32-bit DPMI server (e.g. CWSDPMI)
optional: LFN API (e.g. DOSLFN) for long file name support

3.3 For the 32-bit Windows console version

Intel 80386 microprocessor (or compatibles)
Microsoft Windows 95 (or compatibles)

Chapter 4: Installation

Decompress the archive with, e.g., Info-ZIP UnZip or Windows Explorer to an empty directory.

Chapter 5: Usage

UPXDUMP is a command-line application. It only accepts one option passed to it. This must be either a relative or absolute file name or /?, -?, /h, -h to print the very short help screen.

On Windows systems you have to open a console window (cmd.exe) to be able to see UPXDUMP's output.

UPXDUMP Version DD-MMM-YYYY
Copyright (C) 1997-201x Robert Riebisch
[Under GNU General Public License]

Usage: upxdump <input file>

Chapter 6: Sample output

6.1 For the 16-bit DOS version

Running UPXDUMP in directory C:\TEMP\UPX examing file upx.ttp from package upx303a.zip.

C:\TEMP\UPX>upxdump atari\upx.ttp
Analyzing `C:\TEMP\UPX\ATARI\UPX.TTP'...

File size:                          354320 bytes
Data format version:                    13
Executable format:                     129 ("atari/tos")
Compression method:                      9 ("nrv2e/8")
Compression level:                      10
Uncompressed data length:          1415884 bytes
Compressed data length:             353605 bytes
Original file size:                1415888 bytes
Filter:                                  0/0

6.2 For the 32-bit DOS version

Running UPXDUMP in directory C:\TEMP\UPX examining file upx.exe from package upx303w.zip. Please notice long file name c:\Program Files\UPX\upx.exe.

C:\TEMP\UPX>upxdump "c:\program files\upx\upx.exe"
Analyzing `C:\program files\upx\upx.exe'...

File size:                          271872 bytes
Data format version:                    13
Executable format:                       9 ("win32/pe")
Compression method:                     14 ("lzma")
Compression level:                      10
Uncompressed data length:          1337009 bytes
Compressed data length:             266671 bytes
Original file size:                1297408 bytes
Filter:                                 38/18

Chapter 7: Technical support

Please visit http://www.bttr-software.de/ for help or updates.

Chapter 8: Version history

8.1 19-NOV-2017

added executable formats (UPX_F_VMLINUZ_ARMEL to UPX_F_LINUX_ELF64_ARM and UPX_F_DYLIB_PPC32)
updated lots of names of executable formats
added Windows console version
increased size of read buffer from 16,384 to 65,528 bytes
made 32RTM signature detection more robust
added memory check to avoid (theoretical) crashes
added error exit codes 5 (ERR_FILE_SIZE) and 6 (ERR_NO_MEM) for easier batch processing
error messages now always contain the word "Error" for easier batch processing
on checksum mismatch also print the word "Warning"
options /h and -h are now recognized for the help screen
rewritten parts of the manual

8.2 19-APR-2009

first public release

Chapter 9: Trivia

UPXDUMP has been created using:

Compilers: Turbo Pascal 5.5 to 7.01, Free Pascal 2.2.4,
File compressors: aPACK 1.00, UPX 3.94,
Text editor: Notepad2 4.2.25, and
Documentation production system: Halibut r8112.