How to tell Windows from Unix line endings in a file

Open the file in Jotter by Zaweba and read the status bar at the bottom of the window. It shows CRLF if the file uses Windows line endings and LF if it uses Unix ones, and it updates for each tab you switch to. Jotter also keeps those line endings exactly as they were when you save.

So you can look at a script, a settings file or a data export, make a change, and send it back without turning a Unix file into a Windows one by accident.

Two ways to end a line

Every line in a text file ends with an invisible marker. Windows traditionally uses two characters, a carriage return and a line feed, written CRLF. Unix, Linux and macOS use just the line feed, LF. Text looks the same on screen either way, which is why it is easy to miss.

Where it shows is in other programs. A shell script with Windows line endings can fail on a Linux server with puzzling errors. Some tools count lines differently, and version control systems may show every line as changed when only the endings differ.

Checking a file

Open the file with File > Open, by dropping it on the Jotter window or by giving it to Jotter from Explorer. It opens in its own tab, and the status bar shows CRLF or LF for it. Beside that you'll see the file's encoding, UTF-8, UTF-8 with BOM, UTF-16 or ANSI, which is often the other half of the same question.

Checking a batch of files is just as quick. Open them together, then move through the tabs with Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab and watch the status bar change.

Editing without changing them

The main reason to care is not breaking a file while you edit it. Some editors convert line endings when they save, which is how a Unix script edited on Windows ends up failing on its server. Jotter keeps each file's line endings as they were. Add a line to an LF file and it is saved with LF; edit a CRLF file and it stays CRLF.

The same goes for encoding. The one exception is an ANSI file that gains characters ANSI cannot store, which Jotter saves as UTF-8 so nothing is lost. Line endings are never changed.

If you need to convert

Jotter is built to leave line endings alone, so it isn't a converter. If a file genuinely needs switching from CRLF to LF or back, use the tool your project already relies on for that, such as a setting in your version control or development tools. Jotter is then a safe way to check the result, because it shows what the file really contains rather than what it assumes.

Small checks that save time

Before uploading a script or a configuration file to a server, a glance at Jotter's status bar takes a second and can save a confusing hour. The same is true when a colleague sends a file that behaves strangely in one program and fine in another.

Jotter by Zaweba is a plain notepad, small and quick to open, and this kind of check is exactly what it is good at.