UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi

I have a file which has ascii , binary, binary decimal coded,decimal & hexadecimal data with lot of special characters (like ��.�.��ݡ�����.��ݡ��� ) in it. I want to standardize the file into ASCII format & later use that as source .

Can any one suggest a way a logic to convert such files to ASCII formats. IS there anything in Perl /shell scripting that can fulfill this reqm.

pls suggest how to convert the file.

thanks,
Gaur.Deepti

Hi.
I have used this to process a graphics mixed text and binary file. In general, it's best to know the exact layout, although it might be interesting to try doing some auto-recognition of the pieces.

Best wishes ... cheers, drl

You mean a 7-bit format which can be converted back to the original? Try base64.

If you want the readable parts to remain readable, and there's not too much binary data, the MIME quoted-printable encoding might work.

The mimencode command from the metamail suite can encode and decode these formats. (Its original name was mmencode I think; you might have it by that name.)

Hi drl/era,

Thanks for your quick replies !

As I am new to unix..could you pls tell me in more detail that will be helpful for me ....

Thanks,
Gaur.Deepti

unpack is a tool, you can invent basically any format which is suitable for your needs and it will be fairly easy to encode and decode.

base64 looks like this:

SSB3aXNoIHlvdSBjb3VsZCB0cnkgdGhpcyB5b3Vyc2VsZgo=

It's what's used inside email messages for attachments if you "view source" (or are old enough to telnet to your IMAP server :-)

quoted-printable replaces any non-ascii with an escape code, consisting of an equals sign and a hex code, =3Dlike this=3D (just to give you an idea).

You really need to give more details to work on, or just pick one.

Thanks era,

I have lot and lot of junk values and other data type values...first of all i will test what ever you told for a sample file and see the results....

Thanks a lot for your time and patience for guiding me

Thanks,
Gaur.Deepti