Binary

For files peek doesn't have a specialized viewer for — firmware, unknown formats — the baseline is the hex dump viewer plus a file info screen reachable via i / Tab.

(Executables — ELF, Mach-O, PE — and Java .class files have dedicated viewers; see Object files and Java classfiles.)

Binary files default to the hex dump when interactive; piped binary streams a hex dump. The hex view is reachable from any file type with x — see Hex dump.

File info

For binary files without a dedicated viewer, the Info view shows:

  • File type / MIME (detected via magic bytes through the infer crate)
  • Size (exact bytes + human-readable)
  • Filesystem metadata (permissions, timestamps)
  • Detected binary format from magic (SQLite, video, firmware, …)