^M and vim

jrdioko · 08-04-2004, 09:37 PM

Hello all.

I was editing a file in various programs such as gedit, kword, vim, emacs, and using cat to view the file to see which worked best and what differences between them. Now when I use vim to view the file, "^M" appears at the end of every line where it didn't before I opened it up in the other programs. The strange thing is that using cat, gedit, kword, etc. to view the file doesn't show these characters. What is this, and why is it only in vim?

Thanks.

slakmagik · 08-04-2004, 10:06 PM

It's a carriage return and probably means you're editing a DOS file. To be honest, sometimes it opens with '[dos format] and sometimes it shows the ^M. Not sure what the deal is there. Anyway - you can strip them with a ':%s/<ctrl-v><enter>$//'.

I might be wrong about the details, but point is, vim just shows superfluous returns and they can be stripped. Or left, if you wish.

trickykid · 08-04-2004, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by digiot
:%s/<ctrl-v><enter>$//'.

Actually this would work as well and much easier at the command mode in vi or vim:

:1,$ s/^M//

And to get the ^ just do the ctrl-v and simply an M

jrdioko · 08-04-2004, 11:25 PM

Ah, ok. I had forgotten that the original file was sent to me from someone running Windows before I did all the editing in those programs. So I'm confused... are the ^M's part of the file or not? I don't think they are since cat doesn't show them, but if they aren't part of the file how can I strip something that isn't there

. Sorry for my lack of understanding, I just don't know how these DOS files in Linux work. Thanks again.

slakmagik · 08-04-2004, 11:34 PM

They're there but they're non-printable characters. Vim's showing a control-character representation of them and the others aren't. Try 'cat -v <file>' and you'll see them there, too. xxd <file> shows '0d0a' whereas a *nix file will show '0a' at line endings. (I think.) That's what's 'really' in the file. Just indicates cr-lf vs. lf to mark line endings.

jrdioko · 08-04-2004, 11:36 PM

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks again for the info.

EDIT:
Hmm, I'm having trouble stripping those. I was trying to type the ^M and <ctrl-v> gives me a "^" with the cursor on top of it. If I type "m" or <shift-m> it just replaced that "^" with that letter.

EDIT 2:
Nevermind, <ctrl-v> <enter> worked. Thanks.