> On Tue, 2004-07-20 at 19:25, Robert Locke wrote: >> On Tue, 2004-07-20 at 21:39, Olga wrote: >> > 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). >> > >> >> Let's try a different approach.... >> >> After you save the file in whichever editor, can we confirm that it >> actually has the "four lines" or really just has "three lines"? >> >> How about running "wc -l filename" and see how many lines it reports... >> This will help to confirm for you whether the file truly has the blank >> line, or is just a visual construct of the editor. > ---- > You have a classic half full / half empty paradigm going here. > > The point is that a large number of editors will add a LF to the end of > the file when it saves it. Thus, it doesn't put anything on the '4th' > line in this example, it only makes sure that line 3 ends with a LF > character. Whether you want to say that this file has 4 lines or 3 lines > is really a subjective matter. It definitely has 3 lines, each of them > ending with a LF character. > > Craig > Yes, I understand that. But what I want is for it to be 3 lines, because the programs that I have that process those files will need to be changed if I consider the file to be 4 lines long. And I was hoping it would be easier for me to figure out how to eliminate trailing blank lines rather than edit the programming code for it to work.
