Re: head and file with CR line terminators

[Fred H Olson]

I forgot to mention. I am using version 8.5 of coreutils on old
Ubuntu 16.04.  I dont know if this "feature" has been addressed
in newer versions.  If so, sorry.

Also another new comment at end of message...

On Tue, 26 Dec 2023, Fred H Olson wrote:

> I'm using the command:
> head -n1
> on all the 12,000+ text files in my system (!)
>
> I have a few with CR line terminators (old Mac files?).
> I used the command "file" to identify and make a list of text files
> and created a long linear (12000+ lines) script that does something like:
>
> head -n1 <filename1>
> head -n1 <filename2>
> etc
>
> With this script, if a file has CR line terminators all of
> the file is printed instead of just the first CR terminated line.
>
> From the command line with such a file
> head -n1 <filename>
> for one example file that command prints about 100 characters with
> snippets (10-32 characters long from 6 various CR terminated lines
> (none of the first (CR) line) is printed.
>
> Is there a way (short of reformating such files) to get head to
> display just one CR terminated line?
>
> For now I'll try treating CR terminated lines separately and just print
> a limited number of bytes.
>
> I use my own system of organizing text files and having hyperlink like
> links between them and am trying to develop a way to make a list such
> files. I use some "magic" like strings mostly on line one and may try
> teaching "file" to identify them but for now am examining the first
> lines of text files
>
> I do not subscribe to this list so a direct cc of replies would be
> appreciated.

Also I have since tried above (on file with CR terminated lines )
head -n<num> <filename>
if num is big enough to span multiple CR terminated lines
some of the printed text can be after the next command prompt.  Weird.
I have not tried this in a script yet.

FRed

--
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
     Email:        fholson at cohousing.org      612-588-9532
My Link Pg: http://fholson.cohousing.org