VAX file format conversion

[Richard Loken]

On Mon, 15 Aug 2016, Peter Coghlan wrote:

> The most likely to work solutions are to use $ SET FILE /ATTRIBUTES or
> Joe Meadows' FILE utility to change the file attributes from fixed 512 to
> stream format.  The CR-LF pairs in the file will then be treated as record
> delimiters and the file will then be usable.  Alternatively, delete the
> file and transfer it again selecting a text transfer mode rather than
> a binary transfer mode.

Yes, you are right.  I stopped making that particular mistake many years
ago and I had forgotten.  So back in 1986 I wrote a bit of garbage code
to fix that problem in the crudest manner possible.

Namely this:

/* Name:	clean_cp.c
  * Purpose:	copy an rms file and ignore record length
  * Author:	Richard Loken
  * Date:	17-Dec-1986
  * Modified:	30-Sep-1987 - RLL   Throw out any \r's that may be in the file.
  *		07-Oct-1987 - RLL   and most other non printing characters.
  *		07-Sep-1994 - RLL   Hacked for OpenVMS AXP and DEC C
  */

#include    stdio
#include    file
#include    stat
#include    stdlib
#include    "au_src:[lib]extern_lib.h"

#define	    ERROR   (-1)
#define	    MAXSTR  256
#define	    TOTAL   2		/* number of arguments expected */

char    prompt[TOTAL][7] = {"input", "output"}; /* error message array */

main(argc, argv)

int	argc;
char	*argv[];

{
     char    files[TOTAL][MAXSTR];   /* names of input and output files	*/
     char    program[MAXSTR];	    /* name of the executable file	*/

     FILE    *fin, *fout;	    /* input rms file and converted out	*/

     int	    c;
     int	    count;		    /* character count for pars_arg()	*/
     int	    i, j;
     unsigned fsize;		    /* size of input file		*/

     /*	initialize the variables    */

     i = 0;
     j = 0;

     short_path(argv[0], program);   /* get rid of device & directories	*/
     ltou(program);		    /* lets capitalize it		*/

     /*	parse any arguments to learn the file names */

     while(i < TOTAL)
     {
 	files[i++][0] = '\0';
     }

     if((argc > 1) && (argc <= (TOTAL + 1)))
     {
 	for(i = 1; i < argc; i++)
 	{
 	    count = 0;

 	    while(j < TOTAL)
 	    {
 		if((count = pars_arg(argv[i], count, files[j++])) == 0)
 		{
 		    break;
 		}
 		else if(count == EOF)
 		{
 		    j--;
 		    break;
 		}
 	    }
 	}
     }

     /*	if we don't have enough file names, prompt for the rest	*/

     for(j = 0; j < TOTAL; j++)
     {
 	while(files[j][0] == '\0')
 	{
 	    fprintf(stderr, "%s file: ", prompt[j]);
 	    gets(files[j]);
 	}
     }

     /*	open input and output files */

     if((fin = fopen(files[0], "r")) == NULL)
     {
 	fprintf(stderr, "\n%s\nCANNOT OPEN  %s\n", program, files[0]);
 	exit(4);	    /* a fatal error	    */
     }

     if((fout = fopen(files[1], "w")) == NULL)
     {
 	fprintf(stderr, "\n%s\nCANNOT OPEN  %s\n", program, files[1]);
 	exit(4);	    /* a fatal error	    */
     }

     /*	crude, copy char by char until the end	*/

     while((c = getc(fin)) != EOF)
     {
 	putc(c, fout);
     }

     fclose(fin);
     fclose(fout);
}

-- 
   Richard Loken VE6BSV, Systems Programmer - VMS   : "...underneath those
   Athabasca University				   : tuques we wear, our
   Athabasca, Alberta Canada			   : heads are naked!"
   ** rlloken at telus.net **                         :    - Arthur Black