DotNetFileTools

A collection of .NET command-line utilities from LTR Data for inspecting binaries, working with files and archives, extracting photo metadata, editing offline registry hives, and backing up virtual disk changes. Each tool is a separate project. The repository also includes the Windows desktop helper PictureOnMap.

Tools

Tool	Purpose	Platform or usage notes
checksum	Calculate hashes of files, standard input, or UTF-8 string values; supports selectable algorithms and HMAC keys.	Available algorithms depend on the runtime. Defaults to MD5; use -a:SHA256 to select SHA-256.
hexdump	Display hexadecimal file or stream contents, with optional offset and byte count.	Also has raw-device access paths through Arsenal Image Mounter; these depend on the OS and device permissions.
peinfo	Inspect PE/ELF headers and available dependency, import, and export information. Can process entries in ZIP, 7z, TAR, and CAB archives, and files inside disk/WIM images.	PE API-set resolution uses the Windows process mappings or a supplied/discovered apisetschema.dll. Image support comes from DiscUtils and image-provider dependencies.
netcheck	Display .NET assembly identities, framework information, and referenced-assembly trees.	Loads assemblies into the tool's runtime; resolution depends on available assemblies and runtime compatibility.
TestAssembly	List .NET types and members and detect failures resolving their metadata; supports quiet operation for scripts.	Loads assemblies through reflection. This is an inspection utility; the repository's unit tests are in TestProject.
ExtractExeNetStrings	Extract strings from the #US user-string heap in .NET metadata and print escaped string literals.	Reads the input file directly.
picmetadump	Export photo date, GPS coordinates, and camera make/model as semicolon-separated text.	Accepts local file patterns and HTTP(S) image URLs; metadata parsing uses MetadataExtractor.
PictureOnMap	Open a photo's GPS location in a web map and install JPEG context-menu entries for Bing Maps and Google Maps.	Windows Forms application. Running with no arguments starts installation; installing/removing shell integration requests elevation.
reged	Query, create, update, and remove keys/values in offline Windows registry hive files, including hives inside supported disk images.	Uses DiscUtils hive parsing. Image editing requires writable container/filesystem support; WIM access is read-only.
VhdBlockBackup	Compare virtual-disk block checksum lists and copy changed blocks into a new differencing image whose parent is the backup target.	Requires a format with differencing support. See the existing backup workflow and examples.
ZipIO	List, read, add, delete, extract, freshen, and replace ZIP entries, and work with their timestamps.	Subcommand-based interface; some read operations also accept standard input or an archive URL.
NetCompress	Compress/decompress standard input to standard output using .NET compression streams.	Select a method such as -m:GZip or -m:Deflate; without a method it copies the stream unchanged.
ReplaceText	Apply literal text replacements to matching files, optionally recursively.	Rewrites changed files in place as UTF-8 without a BOM.
splitbystr	Split a file or standard input at a UTF-8 token string into numbered output files.	Output names receive .001, .002, etc.
txtcnv	Convert text between named encodings or numeric code pages.	Reads files or standard input and writes converted bytes to standard output.
setpkgver	Find/update NuGet package versions in .NET project files, including replacing floating versions with explicit versions.	Queries nuget.org; changes are saved only with --save. Supports package-name filters and recursive file searches.

Frameworks and platforms

The executable projects declare .NET 9 and .NET 10 targets. Most also target .NET 8; peinfo does not. PictureOnMap uses the corresponding net8.0-windows, net9.0-windows, and net10.0-windows targets.

Many projects retain .NET Framework targets ranging from 2.0 to 4.8, and some also declare .NET Standard targets. Check each project file for its exact list. For command-line use on modern .NET, select a runnable target such as net10.0.

Most console tools work with managed file and stream APIs. PictureOnMap requires Windows, and device access, assembly loading, image providers, and API-set resolution have the additional constraints noted above. A target framework alone does not establish that every operation works on every OS.

Build and run

Use a .NET 10 SDK for the current .NET 10 targets. Build individual projects to select the tools and frameworks you need. For example, from the repository root:

git clone https://github.com/LTRData/DotNetFileTools.git
cd DotNetFileTools
dotnet build checksum/checksum.csproj -c Release -f net10.0
dotnet Release/net10.0/checksum.dll -a:SHA256 sample.bin

The -f option selects the framework to build. Directory.Build.props places build outputs in the shared root Debug/ or Release/ directory, with framework subdirectories.

DotNetFileTools.slnx includes all tools and the test project. Building all its declared targets also requires the relevant .NET Framework reference assemblies and Windows desktop targeting components. Use an IDE/MSBuild version that understands the .slnx solution format. NuGet dependencies are restored from the declared package references; many package versions float using *, so the resolved dependencies can change between restores.

The xUnit test project targets .NET 9 and .NET 10. Its API-set fixture test refers to files under X:\workfiles\testimages that are not included in this repository, so the complete test suite needs those external fixtures. The registry parsing test can be selected independently:

dotnet test TestProject/TestProject.csproj -c Release -f net10.0 --filter FullyQualifiedName~TestProject.reged

Usage examples

After building each corresponding project for net10.0:

dotnet Release/net10.0/hexdump.dll --offset:0 --count:256 sample.bin
dotnet Release/net10.0/peinfo.dll --imports --exports sample.dll
dotnet Release/net10.0/picmetadump.dll photo.jpg
dotnet Release/net10.0/ZipIO.dll list --long archive.zip
dotnet Release/net10.0/reged.dll --query --hive=SOFTWARE

For more options, use the individual tool's help, for example peinfo --help, reged --help, or ZipIO add --help. There is no shared option syntax across all tools; each project's Program.cs (or Program.vb) contains its argument handling.

For VhdBlockBackup, keep each .blocklist.bin synchronized with its corresponding disk image. --copy creates a differencing image; merging it into the target is a separate operation. The workflow document explains initial preparation, subsequent backups, and moving the metadata after a merge; the tool's help also documents --validate.