cat shows file contents, gedit and vim show blank file

The name of the pictureThe name of the pictureThe name of the pictureClash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP












0















I was planning on building a current logging device with an Arduino, and tried starting off with the basic SD-card write example from the Arduino IDE sketchbook.



The Serial console showed no errors, so I assumed everything worked perfectly.



However... when I inserted the card in my computer (Ubuntu 18.04) and opened it with gedit, the file was blank? Vim had the same behaviour: it was blank.



But... when I used cat on the file, it DID show the contents?!



Anyone have a clue what I did wrong here?



EDIT: in reponse to Bodo's question:



output of cat:



...
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
372,345,324
342,340,330
331,332,328
327,325,324
322,320,318
317,315,313
313,310,309
...


(This is what's supposed to be in there)



out put of ls -l:



total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 myname myname 15161 Jan 1 2000 DATALOG.TXT


output of od -c -tx1 DATALOG.TXT | head -1 :



0000000 r n r n r n r n r n r n r n r n


This last one answerd the question to me... It shows a bunch of newlines. But really... A LOT... This explains why gedit and vim showed empty files. I have to scroll down for ages before seeing the actual data. When using cat, I only saw the trailing lines, so it showed the contents.
Probably something that went wrong when saving the data to the SD-card. Thanks Bodo! You solved my problem merely by posing a question :D










share|improve this question



















  • 1





    Show the output of ls -l /location/of/your/sdcard. What does cat yourfile show? Or od -c -tx1 yourfile | head -10?

    – Bodo
    Feb 27 at 10:50











  • @Bodo: I added the outputs to the question. But... by executing those, I was able to figure it out (see edit). Thanks a lot!

    – Opifex
    Feb 27 at 10:56






  • 1





    @Opifex I suggest you answer the question instead of editing the question. Should be helpful to figure out for others in future.

    – Atul
    Feb 27 at 11:02











  • Relevant: Can I answer my own question?

    – Kamil Maciorowski
    Feb 27 at 11:02







  • 1





    Ok, will do! Thanks @Atul and @KamilMaciorowski!

    – Opifex
    Feb 27 at 11:04















0















I was planning on building a current logging device with an Arduino, and tried starting off with the basic SD-card write example from the Arduino IDE sketchbook.



The Serial console showed no errors, so I assumed everything worked perfectly.



However... when I inserted the card in my computer (Ubuntu 18.04) and opened it with gedit, the file was blank? Vim had the same behaviour: it was blank.



But... when I used cat on the file, it DID show the contents?!



Anyone have a clue what I did wrong here?



EDIT: in reponse to Bodo's question:



output of cat:



...
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
372,345,324
342,340,330
331,332,328
327,325,324
322,320,318
317,315,313
313,310,309
...


(This is what's supposed to be in there)



out put of ls -l:



total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 myname myname 15161 Jan 1 2000 DATALOG.TXT


output of od -c -tx1 DATALOG.TXT | head -1 :



0000000 r n r n r n r n r n r n r n r n


This last one answerd the question to me... It shows a bunch of newlines. But really... A LOT... This explains why gedit and vim showed empty files. I have to scroll down for ages before seeing the actual data. When using cat, I only saw the trailing lines, so it showed the contents.
Probably something that went wrong when saving the data to the SD-card. Thanks Bodo! You solved my problem merely by posing a question :D










share|improve this question



















  • 1





    Show the output of ls -l /location/of/your/sdcard. What does cat yourfile show? Or od -c -tx1 yourfile | head -10?

    – Bodo
    Feb 27 at 10:50











  • @Bodo: I added the outputs to the question. But... by executing those, I was able to figure it out (see edit). Thanks a lot!

    – Opifex
    Feb 27 at 10:56






  • 1





    @Opifex I suggest you answer the question instead of editing the question. Should be helpful to figure out for others in future.

    – Atul
    Feb 27 at 11:02











  • Relevant: Can I answer my own question?

    – Kamil Maciorowski
    Feb 27 at 11:02







  • 1





    Ok, will do! Thanks @Atul and @KamilMaciorowski!

    – Opifex
    Feb 27 at 11:04













0












0








0








I was planning on building a current logging device with an Arduino, and tried starting off with the basic SD-card write example from the Arduino IDE sketchbook.



The Serial console showed no errors, so I assumed everything worked perfectly.



However... when I inserted the card in my computer (Ubuntu 18.04) and opened it with gedit, the file was blank? Vim had the same behaviour: it was blank.



But... when I used cat on the file, it DID show the contents?!



Anyone have a clue what I did wrong here?



EDIT: in reponse to Bodo's question:



output of cat:



...
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
372,345,324
342,340,330
331,332,328
327,325,324
322,320,318
317,315,313
313,310,309
...


(This is what's supposed to be in there)



out put of ls -l:



total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 myname myname 15161 Jan 1 2000 DATALOG.TXT


output of od -c -tx1 DATALOG.TXT | head -1 :



0000000 r n r n r n r n r n r n r n r n


This last one answerd the question to me... It shows a bunch of newlines. But really... A LOT... This explains why gedit and vim showed empty files. I have to scroll down for ages before seeing the actual data. When using cat, I only saw the trailing lines, so it showed the contents.
Probably something that went wrong when saving the data to the SD-card. Thanks Bodo! You solved my problem merely by posing a question :D










share|improve this question
















I was planning on building a current logging device with an Arduino, and tried starting off with the basic SD-card write example from the Arduino IDE sketchbook.



The Serial console showed no errors, so I assumed everything worked perfectly.



However... when I inserted the card in my computer (Ubuntu 18.04) and opened it with gedit, the file was blank? Vim had the same behaviour: it was blank.



But... when I used cat on the file, it DID show the contents?!



Anyone have a clue what I did wrong here?



EDIT: in reponse to Bodo's question:



output of cat:



...
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
TEST
372,345,324
342,340,330
331,332,328
327,325,324
322,320,318
317,315,313
313,310,309
...


(This is what's supposed to be in there)



out put of ls -l:



total 16
-rw-r--r-- 1 myname myname 15161 Jan 1 2000 DATALOG.TXT


output of od -c -tx1 DATALOG.TXT | head -1 :



0000000 r n r n r n r n r n r n r n r n


This last one answerd the question to me... It shows a bunch of newlines. But really... A LOT... This explains why gedit and vim showed empty files. I have to scroll down for ages before seeing the actual data. When using cat, I only saw the trailing lines, so it showed the contents.
Probably something that went wrong when saving the data to the SD-card. Thanks Bodo! You solved my problem merely by posing a question :D







files vim cat gedit






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Feb 27 at 10:55







Opifex

















asked Feb 27 at 10:43









OpifexOpifex

113




113







  • 1





    Show the output of ls -l /location/of/your/sdcard. What does cat yourfile show? Or od -c -tx1 yourfile | head -10?

    – Bodo
    Feb 27 at 10:50











  • @Bodo: I added the outputs to the question. But... by executing those, I was able to figure it out (see edit). Thanks a lot!

    – Opifex
    Feb 27 at 10:56






  • 1





    @Opifex I suggest you answer the question instead of editing the question. Should be helpful to figure out for others in future.

    – Atul
    Feb 27 at 11:02











  • Relevant: Can I answer my own question?

    – Kamil Maciorowski
    Feb 27 at 11:02







  • 1





    Ok, will do! Thanks @Atul and @KamilMaciorowski!

    – Opifex
    Feb 27 at 11:04












  • 1





    Show the output of ls -l /location/of/your/sdcard. What does cat yourfile show? Or od -c -tx1 yourfile | head -10?

    – Bodo
    Feb 27 at 10:50











  • @Bodo: I added the outputs to the question. But... by executing those, I was able to figure it out (see edit). Thanks a lot!

    – Opifex
    Feb 27 at 10:56






  • 1





    @Opifex I suggest you answer the question instead of editing the question. Should be helpful to figure out for others in future.

    – Atul
    Feb 27 at 11:02











  • Relevant: Can I answer my own question?

    – Kamil Maciorowski
    Feb 27 at 11:02







  • 1





    Ok, will do! Thanks @Atul and @KamilMaciorowski!

    – Opifex
    Feb 27 at 11:04







1




1





Show the output of ls -l /location/of/your/sdcard. What does cat yourfile show? Or od -c -tx1 yourfile | head -10?

– Bodo
Feb 27 at 10:50





Show the output of ls -l /location/of/your/sdcard. What does cat yourfile show? Or od -c -tx1 yourfile | head -10?

– Bodo
Feb 27 at 10:50













@Bodo: I added the outputs to the question. But... by executing those, I was able to figure it out (see edit). Thanks a lot!

– Opifex
Feb 27 at 10:56





@Bodo: I added the outputs to the question. But... by executing those, I was able to figure it out (see edit). Thanks a lot!

– Opifex
Feb 27 at 10:56




1




1





@Opifex I suggest you answer the question instead of editing the question. Should be helpful to figure out for others in future.

– Atul
Feb 27 at 11:02





@Opifex I suggest you answer the question instead of editing the question. Should be helpful to figure out for others in future.

– Atul
Feb 27 at 11:02













Relevant: Can I answer my own question?

– Kamil Maciorowski
Feb 27 at 11:02






Relevant: Can I answer my own question?

– Kamil Maciorowski
Feb 27 at 11:02





1




1





Ok, will do! Thanks @Atul and @KamilMaciorowski!

– Opifex
Feb 27 at 11:04





Ok, will do! Thanks @Atul and @KamilMaciorowski!

– Opifex
Feb 27 at 11:04










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















1














As already shown in the edit, here's the answer:



executing od -c -tx1 DATALOG.TXT | head -1



gave me this:



0000000 r n r n r n r n r n r n r n r n


This hinted me that the file might have a bunch of newlines at the beginning, with the contents trailing.
This turned out to be the case. That is why the file appeared empty in gedit and vim, but not with cat. Because I would only see the last lines of cat in terminal.






share|improve this answer






















    Your Answer








    StackExchange.ready(function()
    var channelOptions =
    tags: "".split(" "),
    id: "106"
    ;
    initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

    StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
    // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
    if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
    StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
    createEditor();
    );

    else
    createEditor();

    );

    function createEditor()
    StackExchange.prepareEditor(
    heartbeatType: 'answer',
    autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
    convertImagesToLinks: false,
    noModals: true,
    showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
    reputationToPostImages: null,
    bindNavPrevention: true,
    postfix: "",
    imageUploader:
    brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
    contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
    allowUrls: true
    ,
    onDemand: true,
    discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
    ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
    );



    );













    draft saved

    draft discarded


















    StackExchange.ready(
    function ()
    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f503300%2fcat-shows-file-contents-gedit-and-vim-show-blank-file%23new-answer', 'question_page');

    );

    Post as a guest















    Required, but never shown

























    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes








    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes









    1














    As already shown in the edit, here's the answer:



    executing od -c -tx1 DATALOG.TXT | head -1



    gave me this:



    0000000 r n r n r n r n r n r n r n r n


    This hinted me that the file might have a bunch of newlines at the beginning, with the contents trailing.
    This turned out to be the case. That is why the file appeared empty in gedit and vim, but not with cat. Because I would only see the last lines of cat in terminal.






    share|improve this answer



























      1














      As already shown in the edit, here's the answer:



      executing od -c -tx1 DATALOG.TXT | head -1



      gave me this:



      0000000 r n r n r n r n r n r n r n r n


      This hinted me that the file might have a bunch of newlines at the beginning, with the contents trailing.
      This turned out to be the case. That is why the file appeared empty in gedit and vim, but not with cat. Because I would only see the last lines of cat in terminal.






      share|improve this answer

























        1












        1








        1







        As already shown in the edit, here's the answer:



        executing od -c -tx1 DATALOG.TXT | head -1



        gave me this:



        0000000 r n r n r n r n r n r n r n r n


        This hinted me that the file might have a bunch of newlines at the beginning, with the contents trailing.
        This turned out to be the case. That is why the file appeared empty in gedit and vim, but not with cat. Because I would only see the last lines of cat in terminal.






        share|improve this answer













        As already shown in the edit, here's the answer:



        executing od -c -tx1 DATALOG.TXT | head -1



        gave me this:



        0000000 r n r n r n r n r n r n r n r n


        This hinted me that the file might have a bunch of newlines at the beginning, with the contents trailing.
        This turned out to be the case. That is why the file appeared empty in gedit and vim, but not with cat. Because I would only see the last lines of cat in terminal.







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered Feb 27 at 11:06









        OpifexOpifex

        113




        113



























            draft saved

            draft discarded
















































            Thanks for contributing an answer to Unix & Linux Stack Exchange!


            • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

            But avoid


            • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

            • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.

            To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




            draft saved


            draft discarded














            StackExchange.ready(
            function ()
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f503300%2fcat-shows-file-contents-gedit-and-vim-show-blank-file%23new-answer', 'question_page');

            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown





















































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown

































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown






            Popular posts from this blog

            How to check contact read email or not when send email to Individual?

            Displaying single band from multi-band raster using QGIS

            How many registers does an x86_64 CPU actually have?