CODEWITHSUNDEEP
editornotepad++line-breaks
Jiri Krewinkel
Jiri Krewinkel

Reputation: 135

Why are Notepad++/Netbeans/Sublime displaying suddenly an empty line between two lines in my PHP files?

So for a while now almost every file I open (html/css/php) has two line-breaks instead of just one. I attached a screenshot of my Notepad++ where you can see what is happening. If I open these files in Notepad they show like they should. However Notepad++/Netbeans/Sublime all leave me hanging. Any ideas?

http://snag.gy/6aLrI.jpg

Upvotes: 1

Views: 736

Answers (1)

Mofi
Mofi

Reputation: 49086

There are 3 types of line terminators for text files:

  1. Carriage return (0x0D) + line-feed (0x0A) for DOS/Windows text files.
  2. Only line-feed (LF) for UNIX text files.
  3. Only carriage return (CR) for MAC text files (prior OS X).

See also Wikipedia article about newline.

The preferred line terminator type on UNIX web servers is LF only, but most text files for web sites are edited on Windows. Therefore all FTP clients have the option to transfer text files either as ASCII or as binary.

Option ASCII means the FTP client inserts CR before each LF in file on downloading a text file from server. And each CR before LF is removed on uploading a text file to the server. So a text file stored on UNIX web server with just LF is converted on download to DOS/Windows and converted back on upload to UNIX. The binary transfer mode results in downloading/uploading the files without any modification by the FTP client.

In your screenshot I see in status bar at bottom Macintosh which is an indication that the file is handled as a MAC text file. The reason is most likely that on server the *.php files are stored already with DOS/Windows line terminators (CR+LF) and on download nevertheless the ASCII transfer mode is used resulting in text files having CR+CR+LF. The text editors now do not know how to correct handle those text files - as MAC files with an invalid LF or as DOS files with an invalid CR. Your text editors interpret the files as MAC files with invalid LF and therefore a newline for first CR and another one for CR+LF.

Solutions:

  • Select binary transfer mode in your FTP client to download/upload the DOS/Windows text files without any further modification by FTP client, or
  • search for \r\r\n on downloaded files and replace all occurrences with \r\n to get finally DOS/Windows text files on local disc and UNIX files on web server after upload.

Upvotes: 2

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