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I suspect this may be more of a concept / theory question, but, I haven't been able to wrap my brain around what exactly a binary file is.

I've read links such as the below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_file

https://betterexplained.com/articles/a-little-diddy-about-binary-file-formats/

But, the piece of the puzzle that's confusing me, is that ALL files are stored as 1's and 0's on a hard-disk, or, in RAM, etc. (i.e. there's no physical engraving of the hex characters "6F" onto a disk platter for example; it's still a binary format that the data is stored in).

So, if all files are stored as binary, then, presumably it's an operating-system, (& filesystem) concept to refer to something as "binary" file?

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  • $\begingroup$ A binary file is one which is not a text file. See Wikipedia for more on text files. $\endgroup$
    – Yuval Filmus
    Jul 19, 2018 at 8:53

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A binary file is a file that is simply not a text file. It means that a bin file has a specific format (mp3, exe, jpg...) and can not be interpreted only as a character sequence. There are many ways data can be formatted and read.

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    $\begingroup$ A binary file need not have a "specific format". $\endgroup$
    – Yuval Filmus
    Jul 19, 2018 at 11:00
  • $\begingroup$ A binary file is not just a bunch of 0's and 1's, it needs a way to be formatted. $\endgroup$
    – m68k
    Jul 19, 2018 at 11:04
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    $\begingroup$ If you store a cryptographic key in a file, it's not formatted at all. There isn't any set of allowable formats for files, dictated by the operating system. $\endgroup$
    – Yuval Filmus
    Jul 19, 2018 at 11:07
  • $\begingroup$ Oh ok, I see what you mean. It's clearer this way $\endgroup$
    – m68k
    Jul 19, 2018 at 11:12

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