How to get pipe (|) delimiters between FIX tags in a UNIX command for FIX logs?

Question

I am able to get spaces between tags by running:

tail -f filename | tr '\001' ' '

but I would like the tail output to have | delimiters, i.e.

35=D|49=sender|56=recipient

anyone know how? thanks

Germainegerman

Please format your post with adapted markdown – Servomechanical

I fixed your question's formatting. – Parkway

Answer 1

Don't you simply want this?

tail -f filename | tr '\001' '|'
                              ^
                              replace space with pipe!

\001 is ASCII character 1, also known as SOH ("start of heading"). FIX uses this character as the field separator, i.e. it follows every "tag=value" element.

The unix tr command simply replaces all instances of the first parameter (\001 above) with the second parameter (|).

Parkway

what does \001 represent? – Germainegerman

It's ASCII character 1 aka the SOH character. I've added more to my answer to explain this. – Parkway

Thank you again Grant, that is a really clear explanation – Germainegerman

No problem. If your question is resolved, please "accept" this answer so that SO will mark it as resolved. – Parkway

I have found that when using this, if i add a grep afterwards or before it tends to kind stop the tail from working as expected. It sort of splutters or doesnt update at all, for example: tail -f filename | tr '\001' '|' | grep abc – Germainegerman

any ideas or thoughts on that? – Germainegerman

Sorry, no, I don't have any insight into that. – Parkway