Flat File Parsing

Question

The flat files are present in a unix server .
No other application can be loaded there
i have a lunix machine from where i have to access unix server data
which is the better way
1)directly reading the file from the unix server
2)loading the file in lunix and then reading
How this can be done in java ????
Now lets say we are reading the file in some way or the other ,How to do i parse it
File parsing
different file:
1)fixed format
file size 50 mb
eg
a)the data will be in fixed column size
0-60 -name
61-70 -department
71-80 -age
b)there will be section strip data for a particular section
Note :-Here i have to parse a particular section from the flat file the size of file is 50mb?
eg
section-Finance
name               department          age     
Smith               dep1               32
john               dep2               40
turner               dep3               56     
section-marketing
name               department          age
antony               dep1               60     
black               dep2               57
2)csv file
file size 15 kb
here the data size will be not be fixed but will have a seperator
name|department|age     
Smith|dep1|32
john|dep2|40
turner|dep3|56     
antony|dep1|60     
black|dep2|57
here seperator is | it can be anything
Thanx in advance
Meghna

Answer 1

Xml Convert:
http://industry.java.sun.com/solutions/products/by_product/0,2348,all-4398-99,00.html
Flat File to Xml Converion:
http://www.infoloom.com/gcaconfs/WEB/philadelphia99/lyons.HTM