What is Normalize Line Breaks?
Normalize Line Breaks is a text manipulation tool that converts all line breaks in your text to a consistent format. Different operating systems use different line break characters: Windows uses CRLF (\r\n), Unix/Linux/Mac use LF (\n), and old Mac used CR (\r). This tool standardizes them to LF for cross-platform compatibility.
Line Break Types:
LF (\n) - Unix, Linux, macOS (modern)
CRLF (\r\n) - Windows
CR (\r) - Classic Mac OS
When to Use Normalize Line Breaks
- Cross-Platform Development: Ensure consistent line endings in code
- Git Repositories: Prevent line ending conflicts
- Data Import/Export: Fix line break inconsistencies
- Text File Processing: Standardize text files from various sources
- Web Content: Ensure consistent formatting for web publishing
- Legacy Systems: Convert old Mac (CR) line endings
Common Issues Solved
Git Line Ending Warnings
When working with teams across different operating systems, Git may warn about line ending differences. Normalizing to LF solves this.
warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF...
Display Issues
Text copied from Windows to Unix systems may show ^M characters. Normalizing line breaks fixes this display issue.
Best Practices
- ✓ Use LF (\n) as the standard for cross-platform compatibility
- ✓ Configure your text editor to use consistent line endings
- ✓ Set up .gitattributes for automatic handling in Git
- ✓ Normalize before importing data into databases
- ✓ Essential when working with multi-platform teams
Technical Details
- • LF (Line Feed): ASCII 10, \n - Standard for modern systems
- • CRLF (Carriage Return + Line Feed): ASCII 13+10, \r\n - Windows default
- • CR (Carriage Return): ASCII 13, \r - Old Mac OS
- • Our tool converts all to LF for maximum compatibility
Try Normalize Line Breaks
Ready to fix line endings? Use our free Normalize Line Breaks tool to standardize your text.