Comments on: Newline at end of file

By: Edwin Castro

Edwin Castro — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 05:04:00 +0000

Old *NIX gurus tend to *always* have a new line at the end of a text file. In *NIX, where nearly everything you do is text processing, you have a lot of tools that can process files on a line by line basis. Having you last line in the file contain a new line keeps the last line in the file consistent with all other lines in the file. Immediately after that last new line character you see EOF.

Other than for consistency and so that your tools work better together, I don’t see any good reason for one convention over the other.

I’m personally on the fence on this one, but I think I lean more towards ending text files with a new line.

By: Chris Missal

Chris Missal — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:06:00 +0000

Good call. I’ve actually run into that issue before and had to concat “file” + newline + “file” and so on. It was annoying to say the least.

By: Tsvetomir

Tsvetomir — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:49:00 +0000

Another benefit: concatenating files (say a header) is simpler with a newline at the end.

By: Chris Missal

Chris Missal — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:13:00 +0000

I would agree that source files should be free from unnecessary *trailing* whitespace.

Here’s what I mean about the diffs:
http://imgur.com/a/LZdGv I don’t want files to show as modified when logically they’re not.

You’re right about files ending with ‘}’ and I would prefer consistency over “my way” any day.

By: Chris Missal

Chris Missal — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:06:00 +0000

But there are two reasons. The two I mentioned above.

By: Hwiechers

Hwiechers — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 08:41:00 +0000

You wouldn’t want it because source files should be free from unnecessary whitespace. It’s the same reason that people freak out about trailing whitespace.

Of your two points, I don’t think the first makes much of a difference.
The second depends on the editor you use, and if you’re using a language where your files always end with ‘}’, the second isn’t going to make much of a difference either.

Personally, I don’t mind either way as long as it’s consistent.

By: Iulian Margarintescu

Iulian Margarintescu — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 05:26:00 +0000

There is no reason for having a new line at the end of file. There is also no reason for not having one. This is something is can leave with. If only this was the only debate… think about tabs vs spaces and you will instantly not care about that new line.

By: Chris Missal

Chris Missal — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 04:57:00 +0000

Most recently I’ve noticed it in Powershell, but usually JavaScript files come to mind.

By: Greg Sohl

Greg Sohl — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 04:52:00 +0000

What kind of text file? Is there an established convention? If this is a source code file then I’ve not seen a benefit one way or another.