Decompile a PARISC binary file

[RAJESH GANGADHARAN]

Hi,
I got a PARISC binary, I need to modify some funcationality with in the programme, unfortunately we don't have source code. Is there any way we can decompile this binary. Are there any tools available from HP or thridparty vendors

Thanks in adv
Raj

[A. Clay Stephenson]

The short answer is no. Some flavors of UNIX provide a disassembler (dis) but HP-UX does not. The debuggers offers very limited disassembly but you aren't going to find anything that can produce hi-level source code.

[H.Merijn Brand (procura]

I have tried. And I found it very very very difficult. I have written disassembles myself in earlier days, but disassembling *optimized* pa-risc is near to impossible.

What you *CAN* do, if you are wicked, is replace functions. If you know the arguments, and the return type (strace, truss, and tusc are your friends here), you can write your own, modify the symbol table with a binary editor, and make it use dynamic libraries. It's an adventure an sich, but oh what fun you can make :)

In the long run, the long answer is also "no, you can't". It's not worth the time and effort.

Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn

[Joshua Scott]

Raj,

Look here:
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/hp/hpux-faq/section-220.html

Here are some third party tools. I cannot vouch for any of these tools.
http://www.allegro.com/products/hp9000/avatar.hpux.info.html
http://www.datarescue.com/idabase/idahp-pa.htm
http://wiki.parisc-linux.org/binutils

Of course the usual disclaimers apply, I have not used any of these tools. Make sure that you are not violating any laws by disassembling machine code. Most License agreements prohibit disassembly explicitly, and those that don't usually provide the source code.

Good luck,
Josh