From: Hal Fulton <hal9000@...>
Date: 2003-09-20T13:59:44+09:00
Subject: Re: Trouble with binary files?

Jim Weirich wrote:
> On Fri, 2003-09-19 at 22:10, Hal Fulton wrote:
> 
> 
>>If Unix never distinguished between text and binary files, what
>>was the binary mode flag for?
> 
> 
> Unix originally didn't have one.  Only has it now for compatibility.
> 

I'll have to assume you're correct, as I can't prove my position.

But I definitely remember being led to believe that EOT was an
end-of-file marker. And I remember wondering how it worked for
binary files, did it store the length in the inode or what?

This was System III, around 1980 (out of date even then).

I'll have to dig into the old kernel to see how it actually
worked. I only have it in hardcopy, though.

Hal