Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi,
I've FTPed some text files from windows to my Linux workstation. I'm finding that the characters for quotes (") have been replaced with control characters <93> and <94>. and apostrophes (') have been replaced with what looks like control character <92>.

I have attempted the following substitution commands with no joy:

Code:

:1,$ s/<92>/'/g
and
:1,$ s/\<92>/'/g

Any Thoughts?


Thanking You,

Larry Moon

Once on your linux, you did not use dos2unix utility?
How did you transfer (FTP as ASCII?)

Please post a couple of lines of sample data (blotting anything confidential with X's) after processing with this "sed" command which is designed to make control characters and special characters visible:

Code:

sed -n l filename.txt

When you look at the file on a Windows computer with say notepad, do the double quotes appear to be slanted?

Same question as vbe. Did you use ASCII mode FTP?

Appreciate that. Thank God that was my very first post

Thanking You,

Larry Moon

---------- Post updated at 03:59 PM ---------- Previous update was at 03:43 PM ----------

I didn't FTP the documents. I realized (post send) that I have transferred these files via a USB drive to my Linux box. I have executed both the "dos2unix and sed you have kindly provided but the control character remain. An example of the text that I'm seeing is as follows:

typically described as <93>root<94> or <93>administrator<94> for various types of commercial off-the-shelf operating

I'm assuming that "93" is a leading quote and "94" is a tailing quote.

---------- Post updated at 04:01 PM ---------- Previous update was at 03:59 PM ----------

Oh, and the initial files were ascii

Hi Larry,

In order to see what is there, a useful tip here would be to try the following.

Code:

cat -v -t filename | grep root

This should show any non printable characters, could you post the output if you get the chance.

In addition, this command would replace the characters in one go (if they were just ascii characters).

Code:

:1,$s/<9[3,4]>/"/g

Regards

Dave

Still wish to see a sample of the "sed" output. My sed command does not fix the file, it just makes it so we can see the octal code for the rogue characters ... or perhaps see that each is actually a 4-character string?
I notice that "gull04" is thinking along the same lines.

Gull04,

Below is the output on the target text from the command you provided...... Really interesting:

Code:

accounts are typically described as M-^SrootM-^T or M-^SadministratorM-^T for various types of

I attempted your substitution command with the following out put:

E486

Code:

: Pattern not found: <9[3,4]>

Still I don't know that I've ever seen this manner of character representation. (i.e. M-^S and M-^T).

Are you able to make sense of it?

Thanking You,


Larry Moon

---------- Post updated at 04:56 PM ---------- Previous update was at 04:51 PM ----------

Sorry Methyl,

The file is HUGE. So when I ran your code the target output scrolled of the screen. My lacking observation skills didn't help either. Gull04's grep on "root" focused me.

---------- Post updated at 04:58 PM ---------- Previous update was at 04:56 PM ----------

I hope I don't get a slap on the wrist from vbe for now misusing the code tags he put me on to. :|