TEXT IN UNIX

Dealing with Text in Unix!

This site is still under development ...

Overview

Text files, like the rest of the files in the digital world of computing,
are transported in either ascii or binary format. When treating problems
that arise out of text transportation it is essential to make the
distinction between these file types

Encoded and compressed binary files

Text files from Mac and Windows Platforms

Viewing text files in unix

Printing out text files

Images (Extra)

Encoded and Compressed binary files

file.Z

USE: gunzip file.Z

OR : uncompress file.Z

file.z

USE: unpack file.z

file.gz

USE: gunzip file.gz

file.tgz (gzipped tar file)

USE: gunzip file.tgz THEN USE: tar -xvf file.tar to extract the gzipped file

OR : tar -xzvf filet.gz

which combines the unzipping(switch -z) with extraction(-x) of

the file.

file.tar (tar file)

USE: tar -xvf file.tar to extract the tar file

file.mm

USE: uudeview file.mm

OR: munpack file.mm

OR: metamail file.m

OR: unzip filename

file.uu

USE: uudeview file.uu

OR: uudecode file.uu

file.bin

USE: unbin file.bin

file.hqx

USE: uudeview file.hqx

OR: unhex file.hqx

Other interesting conversions with hex and binary files:

unhex file.hqx         : decodes a hexed file
binhex file.bin         : hexes a macbinary file
unbin file.bin          : decodes a macbinary file
hqx2bin file.hqx      : changes hex file to macbinary format

Text files from Mac or Dos Platforms:

Key: Different platforms use different characters to mark end of line.

Mac uses "\r"or "^M" (carriage return)
Unix uses "\n" or "^J" (newline)
Dos uses "\n\r" or (^M^J) (both newline and carriage return)

Mac textfiles : file
Feauture:
file printed out as a long line of text because Unix does

not see "\n" character. When viewed, the file will have

"^M" characters

Remedy :

To replace "\r" with "\n" use translate command

tr "\r" "\n" <file> newfile

Windows textfiles : file

Feauture:

When viewed, the file will have "^M ^J" characters but has

the desired newline because Dos uses both.

Remedy :

To remove "\r" use translate command with delete switch -d

tr -d "\r" <file> newfile

Viewing text in Unix:

Postscript files : file.ps

To view text with its format (ie. as it will appear when printed out).

USE: 'gs' or 'gv' (ghost viewer) as follows -

gs file.ps

gv file.ps

OR convert the text file into ascii format which could be viewed with

any of the editing utilities like pico, emacs, vi.

ps2ascii file.ps > file

emacs file

pdf files : file.pdf

Can change to postscriopt file and use the above procedure to view the file:

acroread -toPostScript file.pdf

OR

View with adobe acrobat viewer or ghostviewer (gv):

acroread file.pdf

gv file.pdf

Printing out text files in Unix

postcript files :

lpq -Pname file
where name is a printer name (For sweet hall printers, name = sweet1, 2, 3 or 4

pdf files :

can use acroread to view the file and use the printing option to print it out
can convert file to postcript and print out as a postcript file.
can type the command lp -d name, where name is printer name(For SWEET HALL printers, name = sweet1, 2,3 or 4)

Viewing image files

use 'gv imagefile'
can use 'xv imagefile'
for multiple frame viewing can use 'cv frames'

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