Wierd Linux text formatting

figgypower · 08-05-2004, 10:51 AM

As far as I can tell, I didn't find any answer/question exactly like this one. There were some that were kinda similar, but did not answer my specific question. So, I have a text file originally made in Window's Notepad that was used under Linux (specifically, Libranet distro under KDE). I can't remember what program I used, but I thought it was a simple text editor; maybe KDE's version of Notepad?

I have already attempted to convert this text file back to Windows format. I've used unix2dos and a slew of other converters. It sort of fixes it, in that it removes the LF into Windows-readable CR. But, it still looks like gibberish:

**V*riutlaS otkcE cxahgn*e**U
esnrma/esUreI

v riutkadiP
sawsro:d0 67a3
b*

It should be:

***VirtualStockExchange***
Username/UserID: virtuakid
Password: 0763ad

I know it's not smart to post account information, but that account is no longer valid (yes, I'v checked) and it never contained any sensitive information. And no, I do not use the same password for each web site/web service, or even a variation of it. I just want to know what happened, so I can decipher some of the other account information, that might still be valid. As it may already be obvious, it was an old, old password file. By the way, it still reads fine under Linux. I just want it to read fine under Windows, as well.

I appreciate any help, and I appologize if this is the wrong forum but this looked like the right forum to me.

osvaldomarques · 08-05-2004, 10:34 PM

Hi figgypower,
What you showed is a "word swap". All the byte pairs of your file are swapped. I wrote an script for you to swap it again. It already converts the file format to dos mode. The script is:

Code:

awk '{printf("%s\xff", $0)}' | \
sed -u 's/\(.\)\(.\)/\2\1/g' | \
awk 'BEGIN {RS = "\xff" }
{printf("%s\x0d\x0a", $0)}'

You need to copy it and paste to a file, for example, "/tmp/swap-bytes". Then, after save the file, enter "chmod +x /tmp/swap-bytes". To convert your file you have to enter

Code:

cat "Your-incomprehensible-file" | /tmp/swap-bytes >"Your-new-and-shiny-file"

Cheers.
Osvaldo.