IDE 1.8.7 changing file with LF characters for newline to CRLF (Windows 7)

themzlab · October 22, 2018, 4:33pm

I am using Windows 7 (at work) and have just noticed a conflict between files edited on my Windows machine.

I don't recall this happening before I did this recent update to the IDE.

What I would like ( and what I thought the behavior was ) is for the newline characters to be left as they are and for new instances of newline to follow the rest of the file.

What I have found is a single edit such as adding a space to the file and saving the file causes the IDE to rewrite the file and place CRLF on all line endings.

Is there a workaround? Is this a bug in the IDE introduced recently?

themzlab · October 22, 2018, 6:23pm

Continued digging and found this issue goes back a number of years and is still presenting problems.

In my case I might be able to correct it by reverting to 1.8.5 - according to some comments in github on this issue:

[[update: yes 1.8.5 passed my first tests. My files are 100% LF and the 1.8.6 update broke that by forcing them to 100% CRLF after any edit.

I will need to stay at 1.8.5 unless this gets fixed again in a later version]]

github.com/arduino/Arduino

Configurable IDE sketch line separator

opened 03:36AM - 25 Sep 18 UTC

cmsavage

Component: IDE feature request

As I develop code in a multi-OS environment (modifying source code through both …the Windows 10 IDE and a WSL - Ubuntu shell, collaborators using OS X, etc.), I would really like to avoid source files having all their line endings changed to the system "native" ending by the IDE upon file save as is currently occurring. Even if only one line of code is changed in the Windows IDE with a unix-formatted file, _every_ line is modified on file save due to the change in separator (`\n` → `\r\n`), resulting in a heavily polluted git diff/history if the code is being maintained in a repository. I did not notice this behavior in 1.8.5; the fix for issue #6736 is likely what changed. I have no compelling reason to be using the IDE's "native" line separator in my source files as the IDE's OS is not consistent across the project development. Would it be possible to add the ability to configure the saved file line separator? Perhaps a `preferences.txt` entry that sets the system `line.separator` property (if that is all it takes)?

pert · October 22, 2018, 11:29pm

Good work finding the relevant issue report! There was a bug where the IDE would produce inconsistent line endings. The chosen solution was to make them consistent, but fixed according to your OS. Even though I use Windows, I also prefer to use Unix style line endings in all my files. I think the solution proposed by matthijskooijman would be ideal. I think the Arduino developers would be receptive to a patch contributed from the community for this change. Otherwise we can wait and hope they get to it eventually. Unfortunately, I don't think it will be a high priority for them since the current behavior is an improvement over the previous behavior and can't be considered a bug. For now, I just have my Git settings so that all files are committed to my repositories with Unix style line endings. So, even though the sketches on my computer aren't formatted as I prefer, at least I don't subject the rest of the world to Windows style line endings.

themzlab · October 23, 2018, 4:11pm

what technique do you do to force git to change line endings on the way in?

I found this:
https://help.github.com/articles/dealing-with-line-endings/

which seems to provide part of what I need in adjusting them on the way out.

I've got to really careful because we use a few different pieces of software and there are a few other users as well.

pert · October 24, 2018, 10:43am

You got it. I set core.autocrlf to input in all my own repositories. That means it checks out line endings as-is, but commits Unix style line endings.

My global setting is core.autocrlf false because if I’m contributing to someone else’s repository and the file I’m editing has something other than Unix EOL then I don’t want to change the line endings of the file as an unintended side effect of my unrelated edit. If I did want to change their line endings I would do that in a dedicated commit to keep the changes atomic and the diff easily readable.

system · May 5, 2021, 4:20pm