2 Hexmate

The Hexmate application is a post-link utility that can merge multiple Intel HEX files into one, reformat HEX files, as well as insert useful data into these files after they have been generated by a compiler.

Hexmate is shipped with the MPLAB XC8 C Compiler, but it can be executed as a stand-alone application to process Intel HEX files produced by any compiler. The MPLAB X IDE also ships with its own copy of Hexmate, which is used to merge HEX files when building loadable projects.

This guide has information on the tasks that Hexmate can perform and the command-line options that control the application.

When building MPLAB XC8 projects, some Hexmate features can be accessed directly using options to the xc8-cc command line driver or by selecting widgets in the MPLAB X IDE Project Properties dialog; however, less commonly used features require Hexmate to be called explicitly after the project is built. If your project is built by another compiler, Hexmate must always be executed explicitly to process the HEX file generated from that compiler.

Hexmate can be added as a post-link build command inside the MPLAB X IDE, so you do not need access to a terminal application to run it. In the following screen shot of the Project Properties dialog in the MPLAB X IDE, Hexmate has been configured in a post-build step to calculate a CRC over data in the HEX file produced by the project. The MPLAB® X IDE User’s Guide has further information on how to set project build properties.