prefer windows or unix line ending for code?

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+4 Q:

prefer windows or unix line ending for code?

I writing code that should compiled and run on both Windows and unix like Linux. I know about difference between line endings, but question is which to prefer for my code? Does it matter? I want it to be consistent - say all my code uses LF only, or is it better CRLF only? Are there critaria for comparing?

If it matters mostly I care for C++ and Python codes

+2 A:

For the code itself, it does not matter. All reasonably modern editors and compilers handle both just as well (I presume you are not using notepad :-) ). Just use the line ending of the main development platform.

Andrew Stein 2010-09-13 06:01:30

not notepad but many editors on Linux show CR as ^M which anoyying

zaharpopov 2010-09-13 06:08:24

most editors only show the <kbd>^M</kbd> if you have a mixture of line endings in the same file.

Ben Voigt 2010-09-13 06:21:03

Xcode is one major editor that behaves improperly when editing source files with CRLF line endings.

Justin 2010-09-13 08:11:26

+8 A:

Use a version control system that's smart enough to ignore line-endings on check-in, and use the correct value for the platform on check-out.

Ben Voigt 2010-09-13 06:03:26

+1. `svn propset svn:eol-style native <file>` (or the equivalent git command), and your version control software sets line ends to whatever your current platform expects.

DevSolar 2010-09-13 06:07:39

what do you mean by "ignore on checkin"? What exactly is stored in the reposotory?

zaharpopov 2010-09-13 06:44:37

@zaharpopov it doesn't really matters. The point is when you check out a working copy, your files get the proper line endings.

Antonio Perez 2010-09-13 07:11:06

By "ignore" I mean that the check-in tool doesn't consider a file to have changed if the only difference is line endings, and therefore doesn't create a new version (of course this applies to text files only, if you tag the file as binary then every difference counts). Most tools do this by normalizing all line-endings, probably to unix `'\n'`, but there are also diff tools which can ignore `'\r'` differences as well as other whitespace changes.

Ben Voigt 2010-09-13 08:16:37

+2 A:

IME the easiest is to use *NIX line endings. Windows' compilers and IDEs can deal with it fine and it is native for *NIX tools. Using DOS line endings creates, if not problems, inconveniences with some (even the more popular) text editors on *NIX. You often get ugly '^M' at the end of the line then and you have to explicitly convert or tell your editor it has DOS line endings.

wilx 2010-09-13 07:53:23

ansaurus

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prefer windows or unix line ending for code?

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