Hey All!   
      
   Okay I think I now have the replacing of newlines and preserving empty   
   lines etc. cased for posting text files into FTN packed messages.   
   It was working here fine but once any FTN compliant tosser got ahold   
   of it things went south on me rather quickly.  We'll see how this   
   looks on a remote BBS before calling it a done deal.   
      
     ----- ftn_example.sh begins -----   
      
   #!/bin/bash   
      
   split_address()   
   {   
     var=`echo "$1" | sed 's/[:/.]/ /g'`   
     set -- $var   
     echo "$1 $2 $3 $4"   
     unset var   
   }   
      
   pkt_header()   
   {   
     origvar="$1"; destvar=$2; pktHeader="$3"   
      
     set -- $origvar   
     origZone=$1; origNet=$2; origNode=$3; origPoint=$4   
     unset origvar   
      
     set -- $destvar   
     destZone=$1; destNet=$2; destNode=$3; destPoint=$4   
     unset destvar   
      
     PKT_DATE=( $(date +"%Y %-m %-d %-H %-M %-S") )   
     let "PKT_DATE[1] -= 1"   
      
     echo "$origNode $destNode ${PKT_DATE[@]} 0 2 $origNet $destNet \   
           0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 $origZone $destZone 0 0 0 0 \   
           0 $origZone $destZone $origPoint $destPoint 0 0" | \   
       perl -e 'while(<>){@myarray = split(/ +/, $_);};\   
         print pack("S12C10S4C2S7", @myarray);' > $pktHeader   
      
     unset PKT_DATE pktHeader ${!dest*} ${!orig*}   
   }   
      
   ########### Example usage   
   echo "  -------- Output from example ftn-functions.sh starts --------"   
   echo   
   echo "==============================="   
   echo "Function split_address() output"   
   echo "==============================="   
   echo   
      
   origAddr=( "$(split_address "1:2/3.4")" )   
      
   echo -n "origAddr = ( ${origAddr[@]} ), produced from FTN address '"   
   printf "%d:%d/%d.%d'\n" $(echo ${origAddr[@]})   
   echo   
      
   destAddr=( "$(split_address "5:6/7.8")" )   
      
   echo -n "origAddr = ( ${destAddr[@]} ), produced from FTN address '"   
   printf "%d:%d/%d.%d'\n" $(echo ${destAddr[@]})   
   echo   
      
   echo "============================"   
   echo "Function pkt_header() output"   
   echo "============================"   
   echo   
      
   tmp_pktHeader="$(mktemp XXXXXXXX.pkt)"   
   pkt_header "${origAddr[@]}" "${destAddr[@]}" "$tmp_pktHeader"   
      
   echo "Size of $tmp_pktHeader: $(stat -c%s $tmp_pktHeader) bytes."   
   echo "Add pktheader delimiter and show result from hpt's pktinfo"   
      
   perl -e 'print pack("S", 0);' >> $tmp_pktHeader   
      
   echo   
   echo "----------------------------------------"   
   pktinfo -h $tmp_pktHeader   
   echo -n "Cleaning up ... "   
      
   rm -v $tmp_pktHeader; unset origAddr destAdrr   
      
   echo   
   echo "  -------- Output from example ftn-functions.sh ends --------"   
      
   exit 0   
      
     ----- ftn_example.sh ends -----   
      
   Still looks the same to me but I know better.  Let's fire this off   
   to the cold cruel world and see what happens.  :::crossing fingers:::   
      
   Life is good,   
   Maurice   
      
   --- GNU bash, version 4.2.10(2)-release (x86_64-core2-linux-gnu)   
    * Origin: Pointy Stick Society (1:261/38.9)