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

Thanks for your quick reply! Here is my expected output etc. Examples: 
...What is happening...
Client Machine (before script);
kzin@IT-001:~$ file Google
Google: ASCII text
kzin@IT-001:~$ file overture.txt
overture.txt: ASCII text

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Server (after script);
autotasks@mail:~/pricemonitor$ file Google
Google: data
autotasks@mail:~/bidWatch$ file overture.txt
overture.txt: ASCII text

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Note that the perl script has not written ASCII text. 
...Expected output...

autotasks@mail:~/pricemonitor$ file Google
Google: ASCII text
autotasks@mail:~/bidWatch$ file overture.txt
overture.txt: ASCII text

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I tried the method that you posted, same problem. Note both files start as ASCII text, then they are emailed (separatley) to the server. Procmail sends them to this program. This program is the one that does the writing. Note that the MIME header is text/plain for both files.
By Kzin

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Re^3: Force Ascii Write
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Apr 05, 2006 at 21:08 UTC
    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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      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

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      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
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        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.

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