From: jqb@netcom.com (Jim Balter) Subject: Re: using cat on binary files (CTRL-Z trauma) 30 Oct 1996 00:56:54 -0800 Sender: daemon@cygnus.com Approved: cygnus.gnu-win32@cygnus.com Distribution: cygnus Message-ID: <199610300740.XAA25818.cygnus.gnu-win32@netcom23.netcom.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Original-To: gnu-win32@cygnus.com In-Reply-To: <3276B7F4.6A09@transition.com> from "Scott R. Sewall" at Oct 29, 96 08:05:40 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Length: 681 Original-Sender: owner-gnu-win32@cygnus.com Scott R. Sewall wrote: > > > From: "Henrik Geleff" > > > - 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 > 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. Of course "can be used to" is nothing like "was intended to". cat is a basic tool that can be used to do a lot of things; that's the unix methodology. -- - For help on using this list, send a message to "gnu-win32-request@cygnus.com" with one line of text: "help".