From: hgfernan AT usp DOT br Subject: Re: split and cat (NBY) 27 Jan 1998 22:22:10 -0800 Message-ID: <9801280215.AA11682.cygnus.gnu-win32@spider.uspnet.usp.br> References: <34C91A31 DOT 36F6AA85 AT eml DOT co DOT uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT To: malcolm , gnu-win32 AT cygnus DOT com Cc: "Fernandes, Hilton" On 23 Jan 98 at 22:31, malcolm wrote: > Are split and cat supposed to work properly as a means of splitting > large binary files and joinging the pieces back together. I find that > split craps out having performed a good job of creating nothing useful. > If I use split on a Linux box and then try to use cat to put the bits > back together, that fails as well. Typical files I have tried are 10+MB > being split into 1MB chunks. > > Just curious to hear if anyone has got them to work - in which case its > my setup. Or if its a common problem, is a fix on the way? > > regards > malcolm > Hello malcom! congratulations: like everybody else you've been bitten by the binary/non-binary file dichotomy in gnu-win32. :-) It's being discussed a long ago in this mailing list; recently in a long thread named "Why text=binary mounts". This thread is a must read, as it explains the problem as well as discuss alternatives to it. I guess that gnu-win32 won't be the same after it. In short words it is: if you don't use a binary partition, created with mount -b most of the time the gnu-win32 system will understand that you're trying to open the files in text (filtered, or "cooked") mode. In that mode, for instance, the value 0x1a means EOF, or End-Of-File; such a character causes a file reading to stop. That kind of translation has odd effects in binary files. The GNU-Win32 FAQ (http://www.cygnus.com/misc/gnu-win32/) comment on this; see specially the question "How is the DOS/Unix CR/LF thing handled?" Regards, ++Hilton ------------------- Hilton Fernandes email: hgfernan AT usp DOT br www: http://www.lsi.usp.br/~hilton.html (inactive) M. Sc. Student of Parallel Distributed Applications at Escola Politecnica (Polytechic School) University of S. Paulo - Brazil - For help on using this list (especially unsubscribing), send a message to "gnu-win32-request AT cygnus DOT com" with one line of text: "help".