Problem while doing a cat on a tabbed file with pexpect

[Saqib Ali]

The file me.txt does indeed contain tabs. I created it with vi.

>>> text = open("me.txt", "r").read()
>>> print "\t" in text
True


% od -c me.txt
0000000   A  \t   B  \t   C  \n
0000006


% ls -al me.txt
-rw-r--r--   1 myUser    myGroup   6 Jan 15 12:42 me.txt



On Jan 15, 6:40 pm, Cameron Simpson <c... at zip.com.au> wrote:
> On 15Jan2012 23:04, Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.pyt... at pearwood.info> wrote:
> | On Sun, 15 Jan 2012 09:51:44 -0800, Saqib Ali wrote:
> | > I am using Solaris 10, python 2.6.2, pexpect 2.4
> | >
> | > I create a file called me.txt which contains the letters "A", "B", "C"
> | > on the same line separated by tabs.
> | [...]
> | > Now, clearly the file contains tabs.
> |
> | That is not clear at all. How do you know it contains tabs? How was the
> | file created in the first place?
> |
> | Try this:
> |
> | text = open('me.txt', 'r').read()
> | print '\t' in text
> |
> | My guess is that it will print False and that the file does not contain
> | tabs. Check your editor used to create the file.
>
> I was going to post an alternative theory but on more thought I think
> Steven is right here.
>
> What does:
>
>   od -c me.txt
>
> show you? TABs or multiple spaces?
>
> What does:
>
>   ls -ld me.txt
>
> tell you about the file size? Is it 6 bytes long (three letters, two
> TABs, one newline)?
>
> Steven hasn't been explicit about it, but some editors will write spaces when
> you type a TAB. I have configured mine to do so - it makes indentation more
> reliable for others. If I really need a TAB character I have a special
> finger contortion to get one, but the actual need is rare.
>
> So first check that the file really does contain TABs.
>
> Cheers,
> --
> Cameron Simpson <c... at zip.com.au> DoD#743http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/
>
> Yes Officer, yes Officer, I will Officer. Thank you.