Convert DOS line endings to Linux line endings in Vim

dos2unix is a commandline utility that will do this, or :%s/^M//g will if you use Ctrl-v Ctrl-m to input the ^M, or you can :set ff=unix and Vim will do it for you.

There is documentation on the fileformat setting, and the Vim wiki has a comprehensive page on line ending conversions.

Alternately, if you move files back and forth a lot, you might not want to convert them, but rather to do :set ff=dos, so Vim will know it's a DOS file and use DOS conventions for line endings.

Change the line endings in the view:

:e ++ff=dos
:e ++ff=mac
:e ++ff=unix

This can also be used as saving operation (:w alone will not save using the line endings you see on screen):

:w ++ff=dos
:w ++ff=mac
:w ++ff=unix

And you can use it from the command-line:

for file in *.cpp
do 
    vi +':w ++ff=unix' +':q' "$file"
done

I typically use

:%s/\r/\r/g

which seems a little odd, but works because of the way that Vim matches linefeeds. I also find it easier to remember :)

I prefer to use the following command:

:set fileformat=unix

You can also use mac or dos to respectively convert your file to Mac or MS-DOS/Windows file convention. And it does nothing if the file is already in the correct format.

For more information, see the Vim help:

:help fileformat

:set fileformat=unix to convert from DOS to Unix.

:%s/\r\+//g

In Vim, that strips all carriage returns, and leaves only newlines.

In VIM:

:e ++ff=dos | set ff=unix | w!

In shell with VIM:

vim some_file.txt +'e ++ff=dos | set ff=unix | wq!'

e ++ff=dos - force open file in dos format.

set ff=unix - convert file to unix format.

From: File format

[Esc] :%s/\r$//

dos2unix can directly modify the file contents.

You can directly use it on the file, without any need for temporary file redirection.

dos2unix input.txt input.txt

The above uses the assumed US keyboard. Use the -437 option to use the UK keyboard.

dos2unix -437 input.txt input.txt

To run directly in a Linux console:

vim file.txt +"set ff=unix" +wq

With the following command:

:%s/^M$//g

To get the ^M to appear, type CtrlV and then CtrlM. CtrlV tells Vim to take the next character entered literally.

:g/Ctrl-v Ctrl-m/s///

CtrlM is the character \r, or carriage return, which DOS line endings add. CtrlV tells Vim to insert a literal CtrlM character at the command line.

Taken as a whole, this command replaces all \r with nothing, removing them from the ends of lines.

You can use the following command:
:%s/^V^M//g
where the '^' means use CTRL key.

In Vim, type:

:w !dos2unix %

This will pipe the contents of your current buffer to the dos2unix command and write the results over the current contents. Vim will ask to reload the file after.

Usually there is a dos2unix command you can use for this. Just make sure you read the manual as the GNU and BSD versions differ on how they deal with the arguments.

BSD version:

dos2unix $FILENAME $FILENAME_OUT
mv $FILENAME_OUT $FILENAME

GNU version:

dos2unix $FILENAME

Alternatively, you can create your own dos2unix with any of the proposed answers here, for example:

function dos2unix(){
    [ "${!}" ] && [ -f "{$1}" ] || return 1;

    { echo ':set ff=unix';
      echo ':wq';
    } | vim "${1}";
}

I knew I'd seen this somewhere. Here is the FreeBSD login tip:

Do you need to remove all those ^M characters from a DOS file? Try

tr -d \\r < dosfile > newfile
    -- Originally by Dru <genesis@istar.ca>