in reply to Re^2: Force Ascii Write
in thread Force Ascii Write

Do you really care about the output of file, or do you think the contents of the file are bad? The best way to answer either/both questions is by having a look at the file Google. Please show us (at least a sample of) the file Google (perhaps using od) when file Google returns "Data".

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Re^3: Force Ascii Write
by Kzin (Acolyte) on Apr 05, 2006 at 22:49 UTC
    Right on, thanks for the reply. I will show you what I can of the file... I can't give you the full thing, though (Work disallows that).
    Ok, to write it out first, without the octal, editing the file on the client end with vi I can see the text is formatted properly. When I edit the "Data" file on the server, every once in a while there is a line broken with a blue ^@. I dont actually know what this means.
    od output; first 3 lines
    0000000 020101 020061 060504 020171 061501 073165 062565 021440 0000020 021443 072150 070164 027472 073457 073567 061456 060557 0000040 072163 066141 067543 072156 061541 071564 061456 066557
    vi; a sample of a random line in VI before 4-%20I%20cases&ProdID=202&Dispgroup=1&CatID=20###4.5 vi; a sample of the same line in VI after 4-%20I                   ^@ases&ProdID=202&Dispgroup=1&CatID=20###4.5 Interesting, it seems to have translated the 0c of the ascii term to a ^@. There is another line in the file that had 0c and it got changed to the same.
    There are some spots in the file that have gotten big spaces put into them somehow.
    So it does in fact seem that the file is getting moderately mangled. I am still able to read the file, just those minor errors in it. Do you think I would first have to write a manual header line to the top of the file? If so, how do you do that?
    Thanks again for the reply =)

    By Kzin

      There's nothing wrong in the sample you sent — It would have been easier with od -c — but the second example shows the problem. I don't know what would cause that, but I'm really not familiar with MIME.

      The question that needs answering first is: Where is the error being introduced? We don't even know if it's on the sender side or on the receiver side.

        Thanks for your suggestion, here is the output of od -c before and after
        Before: 0001740 d u c t C o d e = 4 - % 2 0 I +% 0001760 2 0 c a s e s & P r o d I D = +2 0002000 0 2 & D i s p g r o u p = 1 & +C
        After: 0001740 o d u c t C o d e = 4 - % 2 0 +I 0001760 0002000 \0 a s e s & P r o d I D +=
        I have cc'd the email to the inbox of autotasks, and was able to see the file in ascii text. It does in fact seem to be the perl script that is mangling the file, not the sending application.
        As far as the mime type goes, I dont think that is affecting it as the mime type for the Google file is the same as the one for the overture.txt file.
        Do you think that maybe printf is finding the %20 or whatnot in the file and interpereting it as binary? I am going to try a regular print, and get back to you.

        By Kzin