UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello all,

I am working with ftp servers in unix, and always I have to get and put files but I don't know exactly if I have to get or put them as an ascii or binary. Some files that I use are: .txt, .sav, .fmb, .pct, .sh, .ksh, .dat, .log.

Somebody can tell me what is the difference between them and what should I use?

Thank you.

If you ftp UNIX->UNIX it is not a problem. Going from Windows to unix is.

Unix filesystems have no concept of a "binary" file, windows filesystems do. Windows thinks carriage control files are "TEXT"
It ends a text file with ascii 26. Binary files in windows are supposed not to have carriage control, so all characters are valid ascii 0 - 255.

The standard C I/O library considers ASCII 0 as end of string, except when doing fread or fwrite calls (read & write in UNIX)

If you are ftp-ing media files and compiled Oracle forms, then use BIN.

Do you get spurious "^M" characters in the file on the UNIX side when sent from windows? Do you have corrupted compiled Oracle forms?

Yes, I'm ftp-ing from win to unix and unix to win.

And, Yes I do, sometimes I got those "^M" characters in the files sent from win. When I have to put/get an Oracle form (.fmb) always I use bin, but I didn't know why, now, I do, Thank you.