On Tue, 2004-07-20 at 18:39, Olga wrote: > > On Tue, 20 Jul 2004, Alex White wrote: > > > >> > Can anybody tell me what is going on? Why do I get the trailing blank > >> line. > >> > > >> > Thank you. > >> > > >> > Olga > >> > >> What are you using to edit the files in question? I know that > >> in FC2 and I think FC1, emacs asks you when you edit a file if > >> you want a blank line inserted at the end. Could this be what > > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > >> you're seeing? > > > > Not a blank line, a linefeed at the end of the last line. vi, on the > > other hand, always ends lines with a linefeed. Some programs that read a > > line at a time will break if the last line does not end with a linefeed. > > > > -- > > Matthew Saltzman > > No in vi and nano I do not see anything. But in gedit I see the following > (for example) > > 1 Mike > 2 John > 3 Adam > 4 > > The above is an example of what a file looks like with lines numbered. > (numbers are not actually part of the file). I want the file to be only 3 > lines long (as an example); however, what I get is 4 lines where line 4 is > an empty line. I can eliminate only using mc (F4). In nano, vim, vi it is > invisible, but in gedit (gui editor) it shows what I displayed above. I > can backspace after 4, it bring me to Adam, but when I save the file and > reopen it, the output is exactly the same as I am showing now (empty line > 4 stays). > > What is the difference between a new lien \n and a line feed? ---- in Unix/Linux, a \n is the same as a line feed. Windows terminates lines with a CR and Mac has both CR & LF It is customary for Unix/Linux text files to end with a line feed and thus, most editors will simply add one for you. It seems that the newer versions of emacs offer to add a line feed to the end of a text document when you close it if it isn't already there (a Y/N question). vi is of course an industrial strength editor and I would bet big money that there is a configuration option to turn it off - and probably many other editors have that option as well. Also know that you could probably create a little shell script (and /or bash function) to chomp the last LF from a file - info bash (look at chomp) Craig
