> 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 > Thank you for the explanation. What you wrote makes a lot of sense. I will investigate the options you mentioned.
