Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ames!necntc!drilex!axiom!insyte!jad From: jad@insyte.UUCP (Jill Diewald) Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: "dd conv=unblock cbs=80 - really grep replacement" Keywords: grep replacement Message-ID: <147@insyte.UUCP> Date: 12 Jul 88 14:32:44 GMT References: <144@insyte.UUCP> <3350@phri.UUCP> <8168@ncoast.UUCP> <145@insyte.UUCP> <12257@mimsy.UUCP> Reply-To: jad@insyte.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE) Organization: Innovative Systems Techniques, Newton, MA Lines: 20 >>More importantly, this is NOT a good solution. ... The files that >>we deal with are very very large data files. Making a reformated >>copy of the file is not a good solution. > >Think `tools'. Think `pipes'. > > dd if=big_data_file cbs=conv=unblock | grep >-- >In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163) >Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris Yes I know. However we really need to be able to "look around" in these files so several greps might be neccessary. Reformatting the entire file before each grep is slow - and a temporary file takes up too much disk space. There doesn't seem to be a good solution. There are many ways to do this but none are very good. Jill Diewald INSYTE Newton, MA