How can I make emacs automatically open binary files in hexl-mode? It's probably sufficient to define "binary" as "contains a null byte" (I suppose https://github.com/audreyr/binaryornot could be used if that ends up being an insufficient heuristic).
If you know the file extensions are working with, the best solution is to just use the auto-mode-alist to startup hexl-mode.
If not, and you take what you have said literally:
It's probably sufficient to define "binary" as "contains a null byte"
You can do this by adding a function that turns on hexl-mode if a file contain a null byte to the find-file-hooks
.
Here is a implementation:
(defun buffer-binary-p (&optional buffer)
"Return whether BUFFER or the current buffer is binary.
A binary buffer is defined as containing at least on null byte.
Returns either nil, or the position of the first null byte."
(with-current-buffer (or buffer (current-buffer))
(save-excursion
(goto-char (point-min))
(search-forward (string ?\x00) nil t 1))))
(defun hexl-if-binary ()
"If `hexl-mode' is not already active, and the current buffer
is binary, activate `hexl-mode'."
(interactive)
(unless (eq major-mode 'hexl-mode)
(when (buffer-binary-p)
(hexl-mode))))
(add-hook 'find-file-hooks 'hexl-if-binary)
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