[comp.sys.sgi] piping binary files

trohling@uceng.UC.EDU (tom rohling) (03/03/90)

    When I do this:


zcat foo.dat | foo


    I get this response:


sue: unformatted io not allowed
apparent state: unit 5 named 
last format: list io
lately reading sequential unformatted external IO


    Now, foo.dat.Z is a compressed unformatted binary file, and foo is 
    reading from unit 5 like:


READ(5) LPO,RPO,BPO,TPO


    Am I not allowed to pipe this type of data?  If foo.dat.Z is a compressed
    ascii file, of course everything works fine.

    To remove any possibility that the fact things are compressed has 
    anything to do with it, I uncompressed it and tried piping and I get the
    same error.
 
    I am trying to keep away from uncompressing the file to begin with and this
    has been a pretty good way of doing it - for compressed ascii files -.

    Is there a known fix or am I SOL?


Tom Rohling
trohling@uceng.uc.edu

FBUIJSEN@NLR.NL (03/05/90)

Tom Rohling writes:

>    When I do this:
>
>
>zcat foo.dat | foo
>
>
>    I get this response:
>
>
>sue: unformatted io not allowed
>apparent state: unit 5 named

My guess is that the problem is in the unit number: on IBM and like
mainframe machines units 5, 6 and 7 have special meanings:
unit 5 is, for example, standard designated to punch-card (!) input and
unit 6 to printer output. Of course, punch card input cannot be
unformatted :-). I am not sure whether this problem only occurs when you
READ (*,*) somewhere in your program (the * means 5, you know). My personal
solution is now not to touch units 5 and 6 in any program with a ten-foot
pole.
                  Frans Buijsen