Problem with the dos2unix command

[Charles Wilson]

Patrick Monnerat wrote:
>     I'm trying to convert a \r\n line-ending file to unix style, but
> this file has some lines with their last character being \r (i.e.: the
> sequence of binary bytes is ...\r\r\n...)
>  
> Using dos2unix to convert it strips both \r, resulting in a byte
> sequence ...\n...
>  
> This seems to me a bug. I need the trailing \r in the file as a normal
> character, not being part of the line ending.

This behavior is by design.  What you ask doesn't make much sense for 
most text processing:

before:

abcd\r\r\n   <<--- look, a DOS line ending '\r\n'.

after running it through YOUR desired dos2unix:

abcd\r\n     <<--- look, it STILL has a DOS line ending!

If dos2unix worked that way, FAR more people would be annoyed: "I ran my 
file 'foo' thru dos2unix, but it still has dos line endings!"

If someone were to submit a patch to add an optional, "non-greedy" mode 
to dos2unix it would be thoughtfully considered...

--
Chuck


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