From: mike@array.com (Mike Willett)
Newsgroups: comp.os.coherent
Subject: Re: Copying files to floppy disks
Date: 1 Sep 92 20:27:36 GMT
Organization: Array Microsystems, Colorado Springs, CO. USA

: >>cat screen.tar.Za? >> screen.tar.Z
: >>
: >>This _appends_ rather than overwrites the screen.tar.Z file.
: >
: >Not in real UNIX. 

	Somebody want to tell me what real UNIX is?  I have been working
	with this stuff since 1980, and I am yet to see "real" Unix!  :)
	This conversation is a cross post from from alt.aliens.visitors,
	Right?  :)

: >"cat" stands for con'cat'anate, i.e. it is supposed to
: >paste all the input files together and to write them as one file onto the
: >output. That's also what the Coherent lexicon says.

	Right (kind of, you need to define "output".  Cat by default 
	gets a char and puts it on std out.  Very important difference
	between cat and ">".  The ">" is a shell command saying "redirect"
	the std out of the previous command into what I point to. ">" says
	open in write mode, not appending, and ">>" says open in append
	mode. So the cat command by default just gets chars and puts them
	to std out, the ">" says to put them into the definition, sometimes
	a file.  :)  Cat by itself will concatanate files, but only to
	std out.

	cat file >file2 

	Is a cheap substitute for a REAL UNIX copy command "cp".  
	In DOS you can "type file > file2", in .... you can ...

	cat file3 file2 file1 file >> file2

	Will cat the files onto the end of file2 in the order that
	they were put on the command line.  file3 will be put on the
	end of file2, file2 will be put on the end of the original file2,
	doubling in size, file1 will be put on the end of file2, and file
	will be put on the end of file2.  Right?  Wrong.  Cat should be
	smart enough to tell you file2 is input and output, and exit().
	The line should be "cat file3 file2 file1 file > file4".

	cat file3 file2 file1 file    Will only put the data on your screen.
	cat file3 file2 file1 file >/dev/console         ditto

: And Coherent cat works just like UNIX cat.
: I have an internet account, but my method of getting sources from the
: internet to rmkhome is:
: 1. ftp source file
: 2. uuencode source file
: 3. split uuencoded file into 64k sized pieces

	A shell script called "split" should work nice here. In 4.0 you
	should not have to split them. (Hopefully)

: 
: 4. mail the pieces to myself at rmkhome

	You can also uucp them.  Then you can skip step 5.
	On a Sun (HDB)(at least) you can uuto them.
: 
: 5. edit the pieces to remove mail header and blank line at end of message
: 6. cat fileparts.xa? >filename.uue

	A shell script called join should work nice here too..  :)

: 7. uudecode filename.uue
: 8. etcetera
: 
: I've been doing this with Coherent since 3.1.0 without any problems.
: And I've been doing it with UNIX for around 10 years.

	In 64K chunks?  Masochist!    :)

	Somebody want to tell me what real UNIX is?  :)  I have not
	seen it in 12 years...  :)  I will vote for the candidate 
	(or alien) who will pledge to bring real Unix back!  :)

	Anybody worked in real Unix prior to 1968?  :)  :)  :)

--
       mike@array.com     So much fun, so little time to enjoy it...

       System Administration: n, 1. Fixing yesterdays' problems 
				tomorrow.
-- 
       mike@array.com     So much fun, so little time to enjoy it...

       System Administration: n, 1. Fixing yesterdays' problems tomorrow.