[Geany-devel] "Ensure new line on file end" inserts new line when file is empty

[Eugene Arshinov]

On Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:06:12 +1100%
Lex Trotman <elextr at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 16 October 2010 19:52, Eugene Arshinov <earshinov at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sat, 16 Oct 2010 17:49:27 +1100%
> > Lex Trotman <elextr at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Eugene,
> >>
> >> I'm not sure it is a bug, the pref setting is there is to ensure
> >> that the file ends in a newline, so an empty file will become just
> >> a new line (see od below).  Thats working correctly AFAICT.
> >>
> >> lex at fred5 ~ $ od untitled
> >> 0000000 000012
> >> 0000001
> >>
> >> Cheers
> >> Lex
> >>
> >
> > Hi.
> >
> > Yes, of course it's logical that newline is always added, even for
> > empty files.  But it becomes that for non-empty files you get one
> > empty line at the end, for empty files -- two empty lines.  It's
> > not quite useful and (IMHO) bad.
> 
> Well, if the file ends in a newline it will always appear as an empty
> line at the end even though there is nothing after the newline, the
> only way to avoid it is to not end in newline.  If you don't like the
> blank line, delete the newline ... and turn off the preference so
> Geany won't add it back again ;-)

No, I like a new line, but not two of them :D

> 
> But there are some things that REQUIRE the file to end in newline, and
> IIUC that is what the "ensure newline at file end" preference is for,
> it has to add the newline.  So it isn't a bug if the preference is
> selected.
> 

We may consider `wc -l' as an example.  It (at least, the version I
have) accounts the last line only if it ends with \n.  With the option
turned on, if a user creates an empty file with Geany and saves it, wc
of course says it contains 1 line.  I would prefer the file staying
really empty and wc returning 0 lines.  Note that I have to keep the
option turned on to keep wc working properly in "usual" cases.

Best regards,
Eugene.