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I have this file, which "may be" a binary file:

    DATA FIELDINFO Cloud_Mask_QA {{{
  rank: 2
  type: 20
  dims: Cell_Along_Swath_1km 2030, Cell_Across_Swath_1km 1354, 
  data: ... (2748620)
    (0,0) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@
    (0,16) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@
    (0,32) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@
    (0,48) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@
    (0,64) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@
    (0,80) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@
    (0,96) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@
    (0,112) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@
    (0,128) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@
    (0,144) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@
    (0,160) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@
    (0,176) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@
    (0,192) ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@, ^@

If I use sed -n "l" file, in order to see the "non printable characters" I get:

    DATA FIELDINFO Cloud_Mask_QA {{{$
  rank: 2$
  type: 20$
  dims: Cell_Along_Swath_1km 2030, Cell_Across_Swath_1km 1354, $
  data: ... (2748620)$
    (0,0) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \
   \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$
    (0,16) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \
   \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$
    (0,32) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \
   \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$
    (0,48) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \
    \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$
    (0,64) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \
    \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$
    (0,80) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \
    \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$
    (0,96) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \
    \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$
    (0,112) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000,\
    \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$
    (0,128) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000,\
    \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$
    (0,144) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000,\
    \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$
    (0,160) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000,\
    \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$
    (0,176) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000,\
    \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$
    (0,192) \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000,\
    \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000, \000$

I am trying to use awk on it, but if I do awk '{print $0}' file, I get:

    DATA FIELDINFO Cloud_Mask_QA {{{
  rank: 2
  type: 20
  dims: Cell_Along_Swath_1km 2030, Cell_Across_Swath_1km 1354, 
  data: ... (2748620)
    (0,0)

So it seems that awk stops processing the file at the first "^@" or "\000" character it founds.

How can I avoid this?

Note: it seems my awk is mawk

Javi_VM
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    `s/may be/is/`. Per POSIX a text file cannot contain NUL characters. Having said that, GNU awk can handle NULs in input files so make sure you're running GNU awk (`awk --version`) and then let us know if you still have a problem. – Ed Morton Jan 17 '19 at 19:41
  • can you upload the file and give a link to it – stack0114106 Jan 17 '19 at 19:43
  • Ok, I just tried in another computer with GNU awk `gawk`. It works! However, I am not "root" user in the computer with `mawk`, so I would still like to have a `mawk` solution... if not possible, I'll try to locally install `awk` type `gawk` – Javi_VM Jan 18 '19 at 09:55
  • It definetively works with `gawk` – Javi_VM Jan 23 '19 at 09:45

1 Answers1

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gawk seems to solve the problem, instead of mawk. awk is generally linked to one of those two, so the only thing to do is to install gawk and use it instead of awk.

Javi_VM
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