gyounger@ardec.arpa (AED-EWD) (12/16/88)
I transferred a file from my floppy disk to my unix file(I believe this is called uploading of a file). This file has 125211 characters and was named mbox.9.When I used the vi command on the mbox.9, I got a surprise response "mbox.9" Executable;and if I tried to work on the file while in the vi edit mode,the file was reduced from 125211 of information down to one line of information. I never had this problem before on the old Gould 86 computer. We(the directorate) are now on a new system called Pyramid;and I am using a WYSEpc. I was able to overcome the problem by sending the troublesome uploaded file to myself and listing it with a new name. I was able to use the vi command on the new name without any problems. How come I could not use the vi command on this uploaded file.
moss@BRL.MIL (VLD/VMB) (12/16/88)
George,
It sounds like your file has no new-line characters in it. Different
systems use different characters to represent the end of a line in a text
file; Unix uses the ASCII code for linefeed ('\n') which is 012 (octal). The
vi editor doesn't see any '\n' character, so it thinks there is just one line
of text.
Use the following command to examine the contents of your file and
ascertain what is being used to represent a new-line:
od -bc < file | more
Then write a 'C' program which transposes that character or sequence
of characters to 012 or '\n'.
-moss