-={ Thursday, 28 April 2016, 10:37:56.896639632 +1000 }=-   
      
   Hey Tony!   
      
    TL> It takes me a little while to understand the nuances of scripts.   
      
   Sounds great.  I had to liberate the posted parts from a bash function file   
   that I source from other script(s) so I fully appreciate your point.  ;-)   
      
   Anyhow take your time and if you have any questions/suggestions I am all ears.   
      
    TL> but do we want to keep track of any individual components such as   
    TL> headers, kludge lines, etc?   
      
   Yes we do.  That is the goal and other than possible splitting of the kludges   
   from the msg_body (fifth field) I believe the current format is a very good   
   foundation.  We may wish to translate the nulls to a more suitable control   
   code, such as the aptly named 'field seperator' (aka 0x1c) but gawk doesn't   
   seem to mind nulls if indeed we find gawk to be a keeper in scripting.  bash   
   string handling has improved over the years and might be fun to replace sed   
   and tr calls ... if indeed we want to.   
      
    TL> you might need to modify the format a bit   
      
   No doubt.  Still I think it is a solid foundation to build from but I will   
   wait for your later assessment.   
      
   Life is good,   
   Maurice   
      
   ... Don't cry for me I have vi.   
   --- GNU bash, version 4.3.42(1)-release (x86_64-atom-linux-gnu)   
    * Origin: Little Mikey's Brain - Ladysmith BC, Canada (1:153/7001.0)