Path: utzoo!yunexus!maccs!cs4g6ag
From: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: append " >> " is not working, why?
Summary: EOF marker problem
Message-ID: <2511E1EF.12227@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Date: 16 Sep 89 06:02:23 GMT
Article-I.D.: maccs.2511E1EF.12227
References: <4734@shlump.nac.dec.com> <2553@pur-phy>
Reply-To: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Lines: 28

In article <2553@pur-phy> qz@maxwell.physics.purdue.edu.UUCP (Qin Zhao) writes:
$  There is tow file: file1 and file2 ( I got from somebody else ).
$  I gave command:
$		 type file2 >> file1
$ in order to put file2 at the end of file1.  And then I used "dir" to check 
$the size of file1, it was increased by the  size of file2.

$However, when I tried to read the contents of file1, I could only see the 
$original part of file1. I had used several editors, and "type" commands. 
$But when I rewrote  file1 using the editor, the size of file1 drops to the 
$original size of file1.

[...]

   It sounds to me like the problem here may well be the DOS end-of-file
marker used for text files, which is ^Z (26 or 1AH).  It is possible that
the EOF marker in the first file is still present before the start of the
new file,and your editor finds this and considers it to be the end of the
entire file rather than just an odd byte in the file.  TYPE will certainly
stop at the first EOF, and many editors may do similarly.

   I haven't tried this out; it is just speculation.  Indignant "You're way
off" replies to dev/null please.
-- 
Stephen M. Dunn                              cs4g6ag@maccs.McMaster.CA
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