From: scott@transition.com ("Scott R. Sewall") Subject: Re: using cat on binary files (CTRL-Z trauma) 29 Oct 1996 23:03:06 -0800 Sender: daemon@cygnus.com Approved: cygnus.gnu-win32@cygnus.com Distribution: cygnus Message-ID: <3276B7F4.6A09.cygnus.gnu-win32@transition.com> References: <199610291143.12615.0@dsbc.icl.co.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (WinNT; I) Original-To: "J.J.Farrell" Original-CC: Henrik Geleff , gnu-win32@cygnus.com Original-Sender: owner-gnu-win32@cygnus.com J.J.Farrell wrote: > > > From: "Henrik Geleff" > > Date: Mon, 28 Oct 1996 17:49:44 +0200 > > > > I do think it is correct for cat to pick CTRL-Z as an end of file on the > > DOS/Windows/NT platforms, the CTRL-Z has been inherited by these platforms > > from CP/M, which was not able to determine how much of the last sector > > actually was file contents. Basicly: > > > > - cat was intended to show text files -- cat'ing binary files to an ASCII > > terminal can bring the terminal into a state which you can not escape from > > in an orderly manner (i.e. logging out). > > Could you present some evidence that cat was intended to show text > files, please. I had always understood that its purpose was to > catenate named files together and write the result to its stdout; > it was intended to send data down a pipeline of programs which > would process it, or to send them down a physical line to a printer. > I believe that the fact that it can display files to a terminal is > a coincidental result of the UNIX design philosophy. > - snip - snip - I can't resist, this thread is too good! The man page for cat from SunOS 5.4 says: cat -- concatonate and display files. it suggests that cat can be used for displaying files, but not necessarily text files, since that concept doesn't exist with Unix. -- Scott - For help on using this list, send a message to "gnu-win32-request@cygnus.com" with one line of text: "help".