BITS(1)                          User Commands                         BITS(1)

NAME
       bits - convert bit masks or lists from/to various formats

SYNOPSIS
       bits [-h] [-V] [-w number] [mode] [mask|list]...

DESCRIPTION
       The bits utility converts between bit masks and bit lists.  It supports
       combining multiple masks or lists using bitwise operations.

POSITIONAL ARGUMENTS
       mask
           A set of bits specified as a hexadecimal mask value (for example:
           0xeec2).

       list
           A set of bits specified as a comma-separated list of bit IDs (for
           example: 1,5,29,32).

       If no argument is specified, the sets of bits will be read from
       standard input, one group per line.

       Consecutive IDs can be compressed as ranges (for example: 5,6,7,8,9,10
       -> 5-10).

       Optionally, if an argument starts with a comma, it will be parsed as a
       single hexadecimal mask split in 32-bit groups (for example:
       ,00014000,00000000,00020000 -> 17,78,80).

       By default, all groups will be OR'ed together. If a group has one of
       the prefixes &, ^, or ~, it will be combined with the resulting mask
       using a different binary operation:

       &mask|&list
           The group will be combined with a binary AND operation.  That is:
           all bits that are set to 1 in the group AND in the combined groups
           so far will be preserved as 1. All other bits will be reset to 0.

       ^mask|^list
           The group will be combined with a binary XOR operation.  That is:
           all bits that are set to 1 in the group AND to 0 in the combined
           groups so far (or the other way around) will be set to 1.  Bits
           that are set both to 1 or both to 0 will be reset to 0.

       ~mask|~list
           All bits set to 1 in the group will be cleared (reset to 0) in the
           combined groups so far.

OPTIONS
       -w number, --width number
           The maximum number of bits in the masks handled by bits.  The
           default is 8192. Any bit larger than this number will be truncated.

       -h, --help
           Display help text and exit.

       -V, --version
           Display version and exit.

CONVERSION MODE
       One of the following conversion modes can be specified. If not
       specified, it defaults to -m, --mask.

       -b, --binary
           Print the combined arguments as a binary mask value.

       -g, --grouped-mask
           Print the combined arguments as a hexadecimal mask value in 32-bit
           comma-separated groups.

       -l, --list
           Print the combined arguments as a list of bit IDs.  Consecutive IDs
           are compressed to ranges.

       -m, --mask
           Print the combined arguments as a hexadecimal mask value (default).

EXAMPLES
           ~$ bits --mask 4,5-8 16,30
           0x400101f0

           ~$ bits --list 0xeec2
           1,6,7,9-11,13-15

           ~$ bits --binary 4,5-8 16,30
           0b100_0000_0000_0001_0000_0001_1111_0000

           ~$ bits --list ,00300000,03000000,30000003
           0,1,28,29,56,57,84,85

           ~$ bits --list 1,2,3,4 ~3-10
           1,2

           ~$ bits --list 1,2,3,4 ^3-10
           1,2,5-10

           ~$ bits --grouped-mask 2,22,74,79
           8400,00000000,00400004

           ~$ bits --width 64 --list 2,22,74,79
           2,22

AUTHORS
       Robin Jarry.

REPORTING BUGS
       For bug reports, use the issue tracker
       <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>.

AVAILABILITY
       The bits command is part of the util-linux package which can be
       downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
       <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.

util-linux 2.42                   2026-04-01                           BITS(1)