Converting DOS files to and from UNIX system file format
Note that DOS text files contain extra formatting characters that
will show up on your screen.
A line of text in a UNIX system file is terminated by a line feed
character. In DOS files, a line is terminated by a line feed and a
carriage return (^M). Because no attempt is made to change the
nature of DOS files, the carriage return character is
visible when editing a DOS file from the UNIX system
partition. Thus when a DOS file that contains a series of numbers
is opened using
vi(C),
it looks something like this:
This is a DOS file.^M
Note that each line ends in a spurious character^M
like this.^M
~
~
~
~
~
~
"TEST.TXT" 3 lines, 100 characters
You can either ignore these characters, or remove them with
the
dtox(C)
(DOS to UNIX) command.
If you remove the carriage returns in a DOS file using
dtox, you must replace them using the
xtod(C)
(UNIX to DOS) command before you use the file under DOS.
The following commands convert the DOS file test.txt to
and from the UNIX format file test.out:
$ dtox test.txt > test.out
$ xtod test.out > test.txt
Next topic:
Automatic file conversions when using DOS utilities
Previous topic:
Displaying a DOS file
© 2003 Caldera International, Inc. All rights reserved.
SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 -- 11 February 2003