This is a quick tip for Linux/UNIX users who are familiar with the vi editor.

Here’s how to remove those annoying ^M characters, that show up at the end of lines, in files that were created or modified in DOS/Windows.

Open the file using vi, and type:

:%s/[CTRL+v][CTRL+m]//g

The [CTRL+v][CTRL+m] means holding down the CTRL key and then typing vm. The text displayed will look like this:

:%s/^M//g

Explanation

In Linux or UNIX, typing [CTRL+v] allows you to escape a control character.

The :%s is the substitute (search and replace) command for vi. It tells vi to replace the regular expression between the first and second slashes (^M), with the text between the second and third slashes (nothing in this case).

The g at the end tells vi to search and replace globally (i.e. all occurrences).

Tags: dos, editor, Linux, text file, UNIX, vi, vim, windows, ^M

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 29th, 2008 at 5:34 pm and is filed under Linux, Software Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.