^Z in position one in output file?

[gbell]

A file we generate for eft payments to a bank has the character ^Z in position one, but not on every line. The file is generated by a Cobol program then dd is used to format it to a text file. I know ^Z has a special significance but I can't remember what it is. Can someone help me here please?

Ideally I would like to fix this at the source, to stop the ^Z appearing but failing that I guess I'll have to edit the text file to strip the ^Z's, can someone please give me the sed command for this.

Many thanks
Greg

 

[PHV]

Something like this ?
tr '\032' '' < /path/to/input > output

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ181-2886

 

[olded]

If you want to use sed, check out this FAQ:

faq80-1911

 

[gbell]

Thanks for the replies, especially the FAQ, which got me to thinking, there is a ux2dos command used and maybe it's the culprit with the ^Z

 

[gbell]

I had another look and there was no ^Z before the ux2dos and there was one after and I had a look at the script and can see where it's appending hence the multiple ^Z's. I checked the man page for ux2dos and have no options for removing rhe ^Z's.

if [ -f /interface/mincom/$1/$4 ]
then
dd if=$BEC_WORK/$2.$BEC_JOBNUM conv=unblock cbs=$3 | ux2dos >> /interface/mincom/$1/$4
else
dd if=$BEC_WORK/$2.$BEC_JOBNUM conv=unblock cbs=$3 | ux2dos > /interface/mincom/$1/$4
fi