Hidden Characters

UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users
1

Hello all,
I have two files, that I suspect may contain hidden characters (EG, three spaces instead of a tab). Does anyone know of any tool that can display this (I have tried using diff, but I'm not quite sure it would do the job)

2

Perhaps this ?

od -a file.name
3

You can use this,

cat -v <filename>
4

Hi. od doesn't seem to have a "-a" option...?

5

You could use this script !

#! /opt/third-party/bin/perl

open(FILE, "<", $ARGV[0]) || die ("unable to open <$!>\n");

while( read(FILE, $data, 1) == 1 ) {
  $ordVal = ord($data);
  print "OrdVal: $ordVal chr: $data ";
}

close(FILE);

exit 0
6

getting an error near
"<", $ARGV[0])

gandp1:/global/dmz/bbssdpi/LIVE/dp1020> /tmp/support/perl_1 /global/dmz/bbssdpi/LIVE/dp1020/archive/DP-BR_124683000.xml | head
Too many arguments for open at /tmp/support/perl_1 line 3, near "]) "
Execution of /tmp/support/perl_1 aborted due to compilation errors.

thanks
Khoom

7

try using two arguments for the open command like the below

open(FILE, "<$ARGV[0]") || die ("unable to open <$!>\n");