Convert CRLF to LF Line Endings

CRLF to LF Conversion

Converting from CRLF (\r\n) to LF (\n) is one of the most common text normalization tasks in cross-platform development. While Windows traditionally uses CRLF, virtually all modern development tools, CI/CD systems, and deployment targets run on Linux where LF is the standard.

When You Need This Conversion

• Shell scripts: A bash script with CRLF endings produces \r: command not found errors on Linux. The carriage return (\r) becomes part of the command.
• Docker: Files COPY'd into a Linux container retain their original line endings. CRLF in entrypoint scripts causes container startup failures.
• Git hooks: Hook scripts must use LF on all platforms for consistent behavior.
• Makefiles: While Make is more tolerant than shell, CRLF in recipe lines can cause subtle issues.
• .env files: Some parsers include \r in the value, causing key lookup failures.

Step-by-Step Conversion

1. Paste your text into the Whitespace Visualizer.
2. Verify the line endings — CRLF will show as green ←↵ markers.
3. The Line Endings panel will confirm: "CRLF (N)" or "Mixed: ...".
4. In the Clean section, toggle CRLF on (and optionally CR for any standalone carriage returns).
5. Click Clean — all CRLF sequences are replaced with LF.
6. Click Copy Cleaned to get the LF-normalized text.

Verification

After cleaning, the Line Endings panel should show only "LF (N)" with no CRLF or CR counts. The statistics panel should show 0 for both CR and CRLF.

Automating the Conversion

For project-wide conversion, consider:

• .gitattributes: * text=auto eol=lf
• .editorconfig: end_of_line = lf
• Prettier: "endOfLine": "lf" in config

These tools prevent CRLF from being committed in the first place.