Bless

What Bless is

Bless is a free binary editor for editing files as sequences of bytes. Its tools include multilevel undo and redo, customizable data views, multiple tabs, and fast find and replace. The project lists efficient work with large data files and raw disk editing among its main features, with search and save operations running in multiple threads. Bless can export to text and HTML, and plugins can add other export formats or extend the editor. It is written in C# with Gtk# bindings for GTK+ and is distributed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. GNU/Linux is its main target; Linux and Windows are the listed supported platforms, while the README also says it should run on *BSD, Solaris and Win32. Building and running the current version requires GTK+, a Mono/.NET runtime and C# compiler, Gtk# bindings, pkg-config and Meson. The README gives source-clone and build instructions, and the GitHub releases page lists no releases. NEWS lists v0.6.3 dated 2020-10-11. Saving a changed-size file under the same name requires temporary disk space for both versions; same-size files save in place.

Who it suits

Bless suits users who need to edit file bytes, including large data files or raw disks, on Linux or Windows. It is a source-build option for users able to meet its listed build requirements.

Getting started

1. Open the Bless GitHub project website.
2. Clone the project source using the README instructions.
3. Install GTK+, a Mono/.NET runtime and C# compiler, Gtk# bindings, pkg-config, and Meson.
4. Build and run the current version using the README instructions.

Verdict

Bless offers byte-level editing, raw disk support and plugin extensibility at no charge. Users should account for its source-build requirements and the temporary disk space needed when saving a changed-size file under the same name.