mstrabs(1) Manual Page

mstranbs [-v] [-w] [-c] [-r] [file…​]

This program may be used to filter MS-DOS text files for UNIX and/or ASCII-ize WordStar document files.

MS-DOS text files use an <CR><LF> terminator rather than UNIX’s <LF>. They end with control-Z characters (hex 1A) filling out their last 128 bytes. This filter squeezes out control-Z characters. The UNIX version of this program strips CRs by default; the MS-DOS version doesn’t. The -c inverts the default.

WordStar text files use the meta bits of characters as formatting information; the -w option strips those off. It also turns WordStar hyphens into ASCII hyphens and discards the invisible hyphen-break marks left when hyphenation changes. These WordStar translations should be harmless to ordinary text and program files.

If called with no arguments, this tool will filter standard input to standard output. If given arguments, it assumes they are all-caps MS-DOS filenames and translates each into a UNIX equivalent in all small letters. It will not translate a file with a name that is already all smalls, and the UNIX version will not attempt to translate directory files. Thus, invoking

in a directory containing MS-DOS files with all-caps names will do the right thing.

The -r option reverses these transformations, turning <LF> into <LF><CR>.

Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>. Surf to http://www.catb.org/~esr for updates and related resources.