[techtalk] vi technique for dos2unix

[Andrew Plumb]

On Tue, 2 May 2000, Robert Kiesling wrote:
> Usually when translating files from msdos to unix, you have to 
> translate at least the line termination characters.  Msdos 
> uses a carraige return-line feed combination (hex 0xd0xa) to
> terminate lines, while unices use only a line feed.  Some utilities
> perform the translation automatically.  In any event, you can
> do the same with a utility like "tr,"  I believe there's an 
> example of how to do this conversion in the man pages.  

The Quick'n'dirty way to do this in vi is as follows:

1.  Open the dos text file in vi.
	vi dosfile.txt
2.  Type the following:
	:%s/^M//g
...where you "compose" the ^M character by pressing Ctrl+v then Ctrl+m
3.  Save the file:
	:w New.Unix.File.txt

The above :%s/^M//g means "replace (substitute) every ^M character with no
character".  More generally, you can do :%s/old/new/g to replace every
instance of "old" with "new"; it's the final "g" after the last slash
makes it replace every instance, not just the first instance.

Note: This will replace any instance of the sequence of letters "old"; it
will replace the "old" in sold with "new" to form snew, and gold will
become gnew. :-)

Hope this helps!

Andrew.

--

Andrew Plumb, VE3SLG
mailto://andrew(at)plumb(dot)org
http://www.plumb.org/tekmage/
spk2_0.0.2:  http://www.plumb.org/tekmage/source/spk2/