Re: Rationale for line-ending recommendation?

[Eric Blake <ebb9 at byu dot net>]

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According to David Abrahams on 12/18/2008 7:42 PM:
> Can anyone explain why the installer began recommending using *nix line
> ending conventions?

Because Unix line endings work out of the box with more programs, and
because it is faster, and because it gets a lot more testing.  And mainly
because doing it globally is wrong - text mode mounts are useful for a
subset of directories, but not all directories.  In fact, the 1.7
setup.exe removes that option altogether, so that you have to explicitly
select text mode for the directories where it will be useful to you by
changing your /etc/fstab.

>  DOS-compatible endings have always "just worked"
> for me and I've heard of lots of problems doing it the now-recommended
> way.

Usually it's the other way around - people have problems when using CR-LF
line endings with applications that expect LF line endings; it is that
case where mounting that particular directory as text mode helps things
out.  Using a binary mount instead of a text mount means that you don't
create problematic files in the first place.

By the way, the program 'd2u' is your friend.

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             ebb9@byu.net
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