Windows text files on Solaris

Post #46,944 by tjsinclair 7/25/02 11:50:14 PM Reply	Windows text files on Solaris We're running a Perl CGI class next term and I'm trying to talk the teacher into using our Sun server to give the students a platform to upload and run their scripts from. Apache is all set up, as is Samba. All students have accounts and the teacher has been instructed in how to mount the home directory and set up the Web folders (public_html and cgi-bin). So far so good. However, in some testing tonight I found that Perl scripts created on Windows cause internal server errors when executed. If I remove the ^M characters at the end of each line, the scripts run correctly. Is there any easy way to either: - get Windows to produce a text file without the extraneous ^M's OR - get Apache (or perl) to ignore the ^M characters For those who might advise setting up a Windows server instead, you miss the point. Tom Sinclair "Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000"
Post #46,962 by Steve Lowe 7/26/02 1:46:13 AM Reply	dos2unix, unix2dos Strips/adds extraneous ^M's as necessary. ----- Steve
Post #47,035 by tjsinclair 7/26/02 10:59:32 AM Reply	Re: dos2unix, unix2dos Is there a way of implementing these 'in the background'. Remember, these are beginning students with little or no knowledge of UNIX (or command lines, even) working from Windows. I was considering building a shell wrapper around perl to filter the text. Tom Sinclair "Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000"
Post #47,061 by kmself 7/26/02 1:09:56 PM Reply	I'd go this route Having recently been bitten by two versions of this bug (a client-supplied CGI, and our own DNS zonefile generator), a wrapper to strip the CRs at some point -- file transfer, periodically in the directory, or prior to running the script, might be a good thing. -- Karsten M. Self [link\|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com\|kmself@ix.netcom.com] [link\|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/\|[link\|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/\|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/]] What part of "gestalt" don't you understand? [link\|http://twiki.iwethey.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/\|TWikIWETHEY] -- an experiment in collective intelligence. Stupidity. Whatever. Keep software free. Oppose the CBDTPA. Kill S.2048 dead. [link\|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html\|[link\|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html\|http://www.eff.org/...a_alert.html]]
Post #47,078 by tjsinclair 7/26/02 4:25:28 PM Reply	I'll experiment a bit more tonight Tom Sinclair "Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000"
Post #46,967 by altmann 7/26/02 2:37:05 AM 7/26/02 2:39:29 AM Reply	Recommend a better text editor than notepad? There are a number of shareware (maybe even freeware) text editors for Windows out there that will preserve the unix text format or convert dos2unix and back. [link\|http://www.ultraedit.com/\|UltraEdit] is one that comes to mind that I use. PS: There seems to be a [link\|http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/24/1832212\|discussion on Win32 editors] going on on Slashdot. -- Chris Altmann Edited by altmann July 26, 2002, 02:39:29 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #46,975 by CRConrad 7/26/02 3:48:49 AM Reply	Two more alternatives: [link\|http://www.textpad.com\|TextPad] (commercial or shareware, IIRC) and [link\|http://www.notetab.com\|NoteTab] (shareware and freeware versions, last I looked). I'm not quite, but fairly, sure that both of these can handle Unix text correctly. As for prices, I think NoteTab might be cheaper, but even TextPad can't be all that expensive -- my notoriously cheap previous employer got a site license for it. Personally, though, I'd recommend NoteTab (regardless of price) -- the interface just feels nicer. It also has a "clip library" feature that lets you save and later insert oft-used snippets of text; and a whole bunch of HTML functionality (also for various programming languages) built-in (somehow based on those "clip libraries", I think; never much used it meself). (OK, OK, I confess: Maybe the main reason I'm partial to NoteTab is that it's written in Delphi... :-) Christian R. Conrad Microsoft is a true reflection of Bill Gates' personality - the sleaziest, most unethical, ugliest little rat's ass the world has seen unto this time. -- [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=42971\|Andrew Grygus]
Post #47,019 by Andrew Grygus 7/26/02 9:38:53 AM Reply	Faced with this problem between OS/2 and Linux . . . . I used jed (available for most OS), because I'm used to Emacs style text based editors, but it definitely isn't for GUI hounds. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #47,036 by tjsinclair 7/26/02 11:02:53 AM Reply	Definitely need freeware Our budget is stretched too thin to even manage shareware stuff. (And we're cracking down on internal piracy, something with which most schools are rife.) Tom Sinclair "Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000"
Post #47,073 by wharris2 7/26/02 3:48:09 PM Reply	Vim does well and it's free, but you have to know or be willing to learn "vi". When you load a file, it gives you the option of using Unix or DOS format for the file. The lawyers would mostly rather be what they are than get out of the way even if the cost was Hammerfall. - Jerry Pournelle
Post #47,079 by tjsinclair 7/26/02 4:26:42 PM Reply	Considered that but these are confirmed Windows monkeys. Anyone try Jedit? Tom Sinclair "Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000"
Post #46,997 by ben_tilly 7/26/02 8:08:22 AM Reply	Two solutions Recent versions of Perl know to ignore the \\r's. The problem is that the shell will look for /usr/bin/perl\\r and not find it. One solution is therefore to make /usr/bin/perl\\r a symbolic link to /usr/bin/perl. Another is to tell them to always use -w to turn on warnings. Cheers, Ben "... I couldn't see how anyone could be educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything." --Richard Feynman
Post #47,039 by tjsinclair 7/26/02 11:06:44 AM Reply	Little more detail, please is \\r a command line switch? So, if I do ln -s /usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/perl\\r that might take care of it automagically? What about non-DOS text scripts? Tom Sinclair "Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000"
Post #47,197 by ben_tilly 7/27/02 2:54:47 PM Reply	Well... I just tried it, and \\r didn't seem to be liked by the shell. But you can do: `perl -e 'symlink("/usr/bin/perl", "/usr/bin/perl\\r")'` And then the bad scripts should work just fine. Cheers, Ben "... I couldn't see how anyone could be educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything." --Richard Feynman
Post #47,002 by pwhysall 7/26/02 8:29:58 AM Reply	Another way FTP the files in ASCII mode. Should fix things up in either direction. Peter [link\|http://www.debian.org\|Shill For Hire] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Blog]
Post #47,040 by tjsinclair 7/26/02 11:09:52 AM Reply	Re: Another way Unfortunately these are Windows-bred GUI monkeys and I've already arranged for them to have their home directories on the Sun mount as network drives on their Win2K desktops. OTOH, is there a nice GUI file transfer utility that supports sftp available? That might bear looking into. This is getting kind of silly. I mean, there must be Perl programmers who work between Windows and UNIX all the time. What kind of hoops do they jump through? Tom Sinclair "Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000"
Post #47,093 by orion 7/26/02 6:44:13 PM Reply	Easy peasy just use FTP, turn on ASCII mode, and then FTP the file from Windows to the Unix box. It should do the translation for you. If not, try that DOS2UNIX and UNIX2DOS converters. *I am free now, to choose my own destiny.*
Post #47,102 by tjsinclair 7/26/02 7:31:37 PM Reply	I think I got it There's a text editor called CONText Pro (freeware) which allows you to set your file format to UNIX. I'll test this out and make sure it works as designed. The added benefit is that the students will have a reasonably full-featured programming editor, rather than NotePad. If it works okay, I may recommend that this be part of the standard install. Tom Sinclair "Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000"
Post #47,198 by ben_tilly 7/27/02 2:57:22 PM Reply	Um... Virtually any good text editor will do this. There are plenty of them. Including for the Windows platform Emacs, vim, GWD Text Editor, Textpad, and so on. All of which both allow you to work with files in Unix format, and give you syntax highlighting. Cheers, Ben "... I couldn't see how anyone could be educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything." --Richard Feynman
Post #47,240 by tjsinclair 7/27/02 8:28:52 PM Reply	Good point But I'm not that familiar with Windows text editors, since I don't use them myself. I only use OS X and Linux and there are plenty of options there. However, our programming classes all either use the editor built into the IDE (VC++, etc.) or Notepad (for HTML, Javascript, Perl). The idea of having a decent standalone programmer's text editor is not yet in common parlance around these parts. I'm doing my best, though, to introduce them to decent tools. Tom Sinclair "Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000"
Post #47,248 by ben_tilly 7/27/02 11:30:19 PM Reply	I named several decent ones And notepad does not count. If they don't believe you, tell them that a good editor at a minumum should offer line numbers (when Perl tells you that there is a problem on line 431, do you count down to it?), the ability to use either line ending, and syntax highlighting. And that is a bare minimum. You will get a list of options which are at least OK for Perl [link\|http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node=Outside%20Links\|here]. Most are free or shareware. And, of course, if you focus on ones like [link\|http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html\|emacs] you will get the benefit of teaching them tools that they will also find on Unix. Cheers, Ben PS If they are teaching Perl, HTML and JavaScript using Notepad on Windows, I dread to think about the quality of the Perl that is likely being taught. :-( "... I couldn't see how anyone could be educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything." --Richard Feynman
Post #47,261 by static 7/28/02 9:50:36 AM Reply	Notepad has a goto line number function. It's Ctrl+G. I know this because, unfortunately, I get to use NotePad to debug JavaScript in IE because that's the only editor IE thinks is installed for viewing HTML. As to why I'm using IE ... well the pages I write for have to work in IE. :-) Wade. "Ah. One of the difficult questions."
Post #47,262 by andread 7/28/02 9:58:24 AM Reply	????? all I get is nothing when I Ctrl+G in Notepad What version of Windows are you using? If you're using 2K, try MSE.exe which is even better than the downloadable environment MS offers A Play I Some Music w/ Papa Andy Saturday 8 PM - 11 PM ET All Night Rewind 11 PM - 5 PM Reggae, African and Caribbean Music [link\|http://wxxe.org\|Tune In]
Post #47,297 by static 7/28/02 11:56:12 PM Reply	Windows 2000. And no, I don't use NotePad to edit my HTML - I use it to view the downloaded HTML because that's what IE calls. Wade. "Ah. One of the difficult questions."
Post #47,264 by ben_tilly 7/28/02 10:13:05 AM Reply	You still don't have to use Notepad Cut-and-paste is your friend. Cheers, Ben "... I couldn't see how anyone could be educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything." --Richard Feynman
Post #47,268 by imric 7/28/02 11:40:19 AM Reply	Can't you add another editor under the Explorer folder "folder options"/"file types"/"edit" setting for html? I did that on my Windows box, then went under IE's "Internet Options"/"programs" and Voila! there was the editor... Ah, the 'intuitive benefits' of MS-style integration... Imric's Tips for Living Paranoia Is a Survival Trait Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised... Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
Post #47,296 by static 7/28/02 11:55:03 PM Reply	Ooh... didn't try that one. Well, okay, Vim is now listed, but IE still calls up NotePad when I go view source. :-/ Wade. "Ah. One of the difficult questions."
Post #47,301 by hnick 7/29/02 7:16:01 AM Reply	Play with the registry? It looks to me like the choice is controled by a registry key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\.htm\\OpenWithList\\Notepad\\shell\\edit\\command You might play with the registry and insert your prefered editor. Alternately you might just remove the section from Notepad down, and let the system ask you what you want to use. If you do this be sure to save a copy of the registry hive first. Hugh
Post #47,275 by tjsinclair 7/28/02 3:24:10 PM Reply	Yes, you did and thanks Now it's a matter of educating the educators. Tom Sinclair "Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000"
Post #47,311 by deSitter 7/29/02 9:27:46 AM Reply	Ultraedit This Windows editor understands UNIX format and so you need never worry about it. If you open a UNIX file and save it locally on Windows, it will be in DOS format. You can explicitly save in either format. IMO it's the best programmer's editor ever. $35 USD, a great value. -drl
Post #47,319 by tjsinclair 7/29/02 10:10:30 AM Reply	Thanks, I made a note about it Tom Sinclair "Subverting Young Minds Since 03/13/2000"

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