Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic!iclswe!lars
From: lars@iclswe.icl.se (Lars Tunkrans)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: special characters in vi 304
Message-ID: <1991Apr17.215250.4588@iclswe.icl.se>
Date: 17 Apr 91 21:52:50 GMT
References: <26568@adm.brl.mil>
Organization: ICL Data AB   194 85  Upplands Vasby   Sweden
Lines: 33

lyle@ssbot.af.mil (Lyle A. Steinhardt) writes:

>Hello all you vi gurus,

>I need to know how to get rid of "\304" character and replase them with a 
>"-" character.  I can't find the control sequence I need.  This file was 
>uploaded as an ascii file so I don't know how these special characters 
>got into the file.  Below is a sample of the file with the problem character
>present:
>596D4403
>596D4403
>596D5223
>596D4091
>596D4873

You got an 8-bit character with octal value 304 in your file.

>Unfortunately, it looks like the mail processor converted this character
>to a "D" character...amazing that...anyway I'd appreciate any help you can 
>provide.

What did you think would happen when the mailer strips off the eight-bit ?
You get a 7-bit ASCII character.
 
To solve your problem,
how about:                cat filename | tr "\304" "\055" > newfilename 

Lars.
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