Extracting Text from a Binary File

perlAffen has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

In windows I am trying to get text out of a file that certainly seems binary in behaviour. If I pull it into vi (vim), I see junk then the nice text followed by junk. If I add to the file (echo...>>), it goes after the last junk, meanwhile the application continues to add nice text lines inside the junk buffers. The file gets fairly large. Anyway, could someone suggest how I might determine what the new lines of nice text twixt the junk are ? Thanks

Comment on Extracting Text from a Binary File

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Re: Extracting Text from a Binary File by Roy Johnson (Monsignor) on Dec 14, 2005 at 15:38 UTC
Use something like `/[[:print:]]{3,}/;` [download] To identify runs of 3 or more printable characters. Caution: Contents may have been coded under pressure.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Extracting Text from a Binary File by Fletch (Bishop) on Dec 14, 2005 at 15:56 UTC
`man strings`? (See also the PPT implementations)	[reply]
strings ! by perlAffen (Sexton) on Dec 14, 2005 at 18:24 UTC
I like shell strings, so maybe I can use the PPT, however what I really need to do is 'tail' the file, like tail -f, where new lines are printed, but rather than get the new lines at the end of the file as they are added, I need to 'pull' them out bewteen the binary boundaries. Think that is doable ?? Actually I found the binary junk to only be at the bottom. so it goes like this text1 text2 JUNKJUNKJUNK a line is added text1 text2 text3 JUNKJUNKJUNK	[reply]
Re: Extracting Text from a Binary File by jonix (Friar) on Dec 14, 2005 at 15:45 UTC
Please give an example of the junk parts. If you find a characteristic in it that distincts it from the nice text lines chances are that you can tackle them with a regular expression.	[reply]
Re: Extracting Text from a Binary File by jfroebe (Parson) on Dec 14, 2005 at 17:56 UTC
The easiest way is a unix-ish tool: strings. Nevermind.. just saw the above reply. :) Jason L. Froebe Team Sybase member No one has seen what you have seen, and until that happens, we're all going to think that you're nuts. - Jack O'Neil, Stargate SG-1	[reply]