Tip: Convert line feeds for files with Flip

Someone sent me files today that didn't have the right line feed type. (By "right" I mean what I expected. ;) A quick Google search turned up flip, a utility for Win/Max/Unix that lets you quickly convert the line feeds in a file. I was able to detect the line feeds she had used - and what I had used (really, I had no idea), and then convert her files to the proper format.

Archived Comments

Comment 1 by Tyson posted on 8/25/2006 at 3:32 AM

I get files like that every so often too. I figured out that if I opened them in Wordpad first that it could handle the line feeds. As soon as you save it, it saves it "how you would expect".

Comment 2 by Chris S. posted on 8/25/2006 at 4:34 AM

Dealing with network device configs that are stored with Unix (LF) line termination all the time, from a Windows box, I had to replace Notepad in Windows with something better... I use metapad ( http://www.liquidninja.com/... ) and Notepad2 ( http://www.flos-freeware.ch... ), depending on my mood. If I have to search and replace linefeeds and tabs, I always use metapad. Otherwise, I stick to Notepad2. These are Windows-only, though, so I'm not sure what to tell you for your Macbook world.

Comment 3 by John Ceci posted on 8/25/2006 at 7:13 AM

I use another product, but does the same thing, <a href="http://www.ultraedit.com/">UltraEdit from IDM</a>. When I open a *nix based file it asks me if I want to convert the linefeeds to Windows linefeeds. I don't know what I would do without UltraEdit's column editing and macro language are well !

Comment 4 by TJ Downes posted on 8/25/2006 at 7:59 AM

I can vouch for both metaedit and ultraedit. I like metaedit so much I replaced notepad in my system files with it!