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alexeit
Asked: 2009-05-08 20:44:55 +0800 CST

How to convert line breaks in a text file between the Windows and Unix/Linux formats?

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How do I convert line breaks in a text file between the Windows and Unix/Linux formats?

I have a *nix environment, but that I need to import and export data with the Windows-style line breaks. I thought there would be a standard utility or command to do this, but I can't seem to find it.

windows linux unix

5 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You're probably looking for dos2unix, unix2dos, todos or fromdos depending on your distribution. Ubuntu/Debian package todos/fromdos as part of the tofrodos package from memory.

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  2. One option is to use unix2dos (and dos2unix for going back) on the command line.

    Another is to use a text editor:
    For vi: :set ff=dos to set the line endings to be dos line endings.
    For emacs: C-x [ENTER] f dos [ENTER]

    For your favourite GUI based editor (eg. jedit) I recommend checking the manual or Google.

    Lastly if you don't want to deal with a text editor and just do it using more common utilities and such (or don't have unix2dos installed):

    tr -d '\r' < infile > outfile to go from Windows -> Unix
    awk 'sub("$", "\r")' unixfile.txt > winfile.txt to go from Unix -> Windows as tr can not go from Unix to Windows.

    • 24

  3. Edit it in Vim and use the set fileformat command.

    • MS-DOS/Windows (CR+LF breaks) to *nix (LF only breaks)

      :set fileformat=unix
:wq

    • *nix to MS-DOS/Windows

      :set fileformat=dos
:wq
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  4. This is what I use, similar to Chealion, to convert Windows to Unix line endings:

    tr -d \\015 < windows > unix
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  5. Doing this with POSIX is tricky:

    • POSIX Sed does not support \r or \15. Even if it did, the in place option -i is not POSIX

    • POSIX Awk does support \r and \15, however the -i inplace option is not POSIX

    • d2u and dos2unix are not POSIX utilities, but ex is

    • POSIX ex does not support \r, \15, \n or \12

    To remove carriage returns:

    awk 'BEGIN{RS="\1";ORS="";getline;gsub("\r","");print>ARGV[1]}' file

    To add carriage returns:

    awk 'BEGIN{RS="\1";ORS="";getline;gsub("\n","\r&");print>ARGV[1]}' file
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