Don't add new line at the end of a file

Question

Vim always adds a new line at the end of my files when saving, and it is causing errors in my PHP scripts.

How can I make vim not add this new line on save?

"it is causing errors in my PHP scripts" -> This is strange? PHP should work fine with a trailing newline. In fact, this is pretty much standard. Perhaps you have a blank line after the ?> which PHP outputs to the browser (causing the "headers already sent"-error)? You don't need a trailing ?>, and it is usually recommended to leave it out to prevent exactly this problem. — Martin Tournoij, May 28 '15 at 15:53
I guess thats misleading. Our scripts interpret any output as an error. — Dan, May 28 '15 at 15:55
Also, related question: How to make vim automatically add a newline to the end of a file? — Martin Tournoij, May 28 '15 at 15:55

DarthVanger · Answer 1 · 2019-09-01T14:48:53.683

In new versions of Vim there's finally an option for this

Vim 7.4.785 adds the 'fixeol' option that can be disabled to automatically preserve any missing EOL at the end of the file.

(see wiki page: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Do_not_auto-add_a_newline_at_EOF)

In your ~/.vimrc add this line:

set nofixeol

Relaunch vim, now it shouldn't add the newline at the end of the file.

(works only since vim version 7.4.785)

score 16 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:38

16

This isn't a full empty line, just a final newline at the end of the last line. Unix tools (like Vim's heritage) insist on adding that, whereas the Windows operating system is not so strict. You can read more on that at Why should files end with a newline?

Unfortunately, it's quite complex to prevent Vim from writing the final newline. My PreserveNoEOL plugin can do this. For a discussion of approaches, also see VIM Disable Automatic Newline At End Of File.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:38

Community

1

answered May 28 '15 at 15:53

Ingo Karkat

17,819
1
45
61

1

Just noting for future readers that while this answer was terrific at the time, in more recent versions of Vim there's a much simpler solution in a answer posted later. – Rich Oct 07 '19 at 09:01

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 17 '21 at 12:19

7

What eventually worked for me was:

vim -b <filename>

Then in vim:

:set noeol
:wq

Credit

answered Jan 17 '21 at 12:19

Tom Hale

2,681
14
32

This also works for removing the ending newline from a file which already has it, which the other answers don't help with. – Tgr Feb 19 '21 at 00:29

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 05 '16 at 22:53

2

Have you tried opening the file in binary mode? Try vim -b file_name. It should not add the new line at end of file.

edited Oct 05 '16 at 22:53

DJMcMayhem

17,581
5
53
85

answered Oct 05 '16 at 19:57

Ali

121
1

I tried doing this, and then using xxd to verify, but it still adds a linefeed (0a) even in binary mode. – DJMcMayhem Oct 05 '16 at 22:54

Don't add new line at the end of a file

4 Answers4

Linked