At 11:15 AM 10/1/02 -0400, Paul Kraus wrote: [...] >*On a side note why can't I open Linux conf files with notepad? There >are strange characters. I have to open it with WordPad. I can not save >or edit using either notepad or WordPad because they seem to add strange >characters also. Just curious.*
The problem you are seeing has to do with difference in the ways different operating systems mark the end of line (EOL) in text files. Unix/Linux systems use ascii 10 (CTRL-J) to mark end of line, while Windows systems use the two-character sequence ascii 13, ascii 10 (CTRL-M,CTRL-J) that was established by MS-DOS. (I *think* Macs use yet another EOL label, just CTRL-M, but I may be remembering that wrong, or OS-X may have switched it.) If you open a Linux text file on a Windows system without first concerting it to Windows-format text, you run the risk that the program you open it in will not recognize the EOL markers. This is what happens to you with Notepad. Wordpad is smarter and recognizes both possible EOL markers ... but it you edit and save in Wordpad, it might change the EOL to Windows style, which will cause it to look funny in Linux text editors (lotsa ^M characters), and not work if it is an executable. Linux has programs called "todos" and "fromdos" to change the EOL markings. This is also the fix that, for example, http clients do when downloading/uploading mime-type text files and ftp clients do when transferring in text (A) mode. -- -------------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"-------- Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo Palo Alto, California, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
