rsync - Jun 2002 - cygwin rsync and ascii files

I am ysyncing text files between NT/95/XP machines and Solaris.   I noted
that the text/ascii files created on the windows platforms contain ^M at
the end of each line when transfered to the Solaris system.  This can be
explained by the binary transmission and can use FTP is ASCII mode to
prevent this from happening.  It is crutial that we preserve the time
stamp, so running dos2unix isn't one of the top solutions (unless I write
something to touch the file back to the "original" time).  Is there an
option to rsync files in ASCII mode?  I would also appreciate and entertain
other solutions.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

On Thursday 27 Jun 02, michael.protulipac@pncbank.com
writes:
> I am ysyncing text files between NT/95/XP machines and Solaris.   I noted
> that the text/ascii files created on the windows platforms contain ^M at
> the end of each line when transfered to the Solaris system.  This can be
> explained by the binary transmission and can use FTP is ASCII mode to
> prevent this from happening.  It is crutial that we preserve the time
> stamp, so running dos2unix isn't one of the top solutions (unless I
write
> something to touch the file back to the "original" time).  Is
there an
> option to rsync files in ASCII mode?  I would also appreciate and entertain
> other solutions.
I can't think of any way to do this with rsync as shipped.  If you
need to *use* those text files on both Windows and UNIX, is there a
way for you to create them with UNIX line endings in the first place?
The only Windows application I know of that cannot handle UNIX
line-endings is Notepad.

You could try modifying rsync to open text files in text mode on
Windows.  I haven't tried it, but it might strip the ^M for you.  Just
be careful you don't open binary files this way, or they could get
corrupted.  (This approach is probably be too simplistic.)  In any
case, I think your only hope is to modify your copy of rsync to suit
you, possibly in combination with a dos2unix filter on the Windows
side.

There are other techniques to force text v. binary file methods in
Cygwin, using /usr/lib/textmode.o for example.  Figure all that out
using Cygwin docs and resources at <http://cygwin.com/>, not here.

Good luck, I can imagine this feature would be useful to others, so
please keep us informed.

Thanks,
David
(Cygwin FAQ maintainer)

> I am ysyncing text files between NT/95/XP machines and Solaris.   I noted
> that the text/ascii files created on the windows platforms contain ^M at
> the end of each line when transfered to the Solaris system.  This can be
> explained by the binary transmission and can use FTP is ASCII mode to
> prevent this from happening.  It is crutial that we preserve the time
> stamp, so running dos2unix isn't one of the top solutions (unless I
write
> something to touch the file back to the "original" time).  Is
there an
> option to rsync files in ASCII mode?  I would also appreciate and
entertain
> other solutions.
Could you not just use a shell script on the Solaris Side once you've
rsynced
the files across? This may be over simplified but it's the first thing that
popped in my head):

---- Begin Psuedo-code ----

For textFile in listOfFiles
  originalTime=`ls -l $textFile | cut time/date field`
  sed $textFile replacing ^M with proper unix line endings
  touch -amt $originalTime $textFile
Loop

---- End Psuedo-code ----

Hope this helps,

Matt Burgess



-----Original Message-----
From: David Starks-Browning [mailto:starksb@ebi.ac.uk]
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 11:43
To: michael.protulipac@pncbank.com
Cc: rsync@lists.samba.org
Subject: cygwin rsync and ascii files


On Thursday 27 Jun 02, michael.protulipac@pncbank.com
writes:
> I am ysyncing text files between NT/95/XP machines and Solaris.   I noted
> that the text/ascii files created on the windows platforms contain ^M at
> the end of each line when transfered to the Solaris system.  This can be
> explained by the binary transmission and can use FTP is ASCII mode to
> prevent this from happening.  It is crutial that we preserve the time
> stamp, so running dos2unix isn't one of the top solutions (unless I
write
> something to touch the file back to the "original" time).  Is
there an
> option to rsync files in ASCII mode?  I would also appreciate and
entertain
> other solutions.
I can't think of any way to do this with rsync as shipped.  If you
need to *use* those text files on both Windows and UNIX, is there a
way for you to create them with UNIX line endings in the first place?
The only Windows application I know of that cannot handle UNIX
line-endings is Notepad.

You could try modifying rsync to open text files in text mode on
Windows.  I haven't tried it, but it might strip the ^M for you.  Just
be careful you don't open binary files this way, or they could get
corrupted.  (This approach is probably be too simplistic.)  In any
case, I think your only hope is to modify your copy of rsync to suit
you, possibly in combination with a dos2unix filter on the Windows
side.

There are other techniques to force text v. binary file methods in
Cygwin, using /usr/lib/textmode.o for example.  Figure all that out
using Cygwin docs and resources at <http://cygwin.com/>, not here.

Good luck, I can imagine this feature would be useful to others, so
please keep us informed.

Thanks,
David
(Cygwin FAQ maintainer)


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