Install Validation

Although every decompiler has a slightly different implementation for BinSync, the instructions below should work almost the same for all decompilers. This is because we use a unified GUI made to work in a variety of QT versions.

In this tutorial, you will validate your BinSync install can:

  1. Use Git to connect to a BinSync project
  2. Read data from the remote BinSync project
  3. Set the read data into your decompiler.

For this tutorial, we will use the example binsync repo that is a part of the BinSync project.

Sync Validation

  1. Copy down a local version of the binary fauxware from the example repo: 
    wget https://github.com/binsync/example.bsproj/raw/data/fauxware
  2. Open the fauxware binary in your decompiler, verify it has loaded in the decompiler terminal 
    [BinSync] X.X.X loaded

    Or check your plugin menu. For example, if you are using IDA, you should see this option:

If neither show, it means the plugin is not in the plugins folder.

  1. Open the BinSync Config Pane
    1. You can hit Ctrl+Shift+B or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+B to open it, OR
    2. You can click your decompiler menu: Edit -> Plugins -> Binsync: Configure.... On Binja it’s under Plugins. On Ghidra under Tools
  2. Give a username and enter https://github.com/binsync/example.bsproj.git in the remote, click ok

If you already had the repo cloned down locally, you can instead select that folder from you filesystem.

  1. Verify your terminal says (with your username): 
    [BinSync]: Client has connected to sync repo with user: <username>.
  2. You should now see an Info Panel. Click on Activity, you can see other user’s activities. You should also notice your username on the bottom right of the panel to be green (online).

Congrats, your BinSync seems to connect to a repo, and recognize you as a user. Let’s test pulling to verify you can actually do stuff with your install.

  1. In your decompiler, click anywhere in the function main once. After a second or two you should notice on the Info Panel that the words on the bottom left say main@0x40071d. This is your context.

  2. Now click on the Context tab, and right click on the user mahaloz. Click the Sync popup.

  3. If everything works out, your decompilation should’ve changed for main. Now the function should be named mahaloz_main, and it should look something like:

// ***
// This is a large function comment.
// Thanks for using BinSync!
// 
// <3 mahaloz
// ***
__int64 __fastcall mahaloz_main(int a1, char **a2, char **a3)
{
  int ret_val; // [rsp+1Ch] [rbp-24h] BYREF
  mahaloz_struct special_var; // [rsp+20h] [rbp-20h] BYREF
  char buf[16]; // [rsp+30h] [rbp-10h] BYREF

  buf[8] = 0;
  LOBYTE(special_var.field_8) = 0;
  puts("Username: ");   // probs some username thing!
  read(0, buf, 8uLL);
  read(0, &ret_val, 1uLL);
  puts("Password: ");
  read(0, &special_var, 8uLL);
  read(0, &ret_val, 1uLL);
  ret_val = sub_400664(buf, &special_var);
  if ( !ret_val )
    sub_4006FD(buf);
  return sub_4006ED(buf);
}

Take note of the variable names & types, and the comments. This will look different per-decompiler, but the symbols and types should line up for the most part.

For more general use, tips, and advice, see our Use Guide for full help.