Writing Unix style text file in C#

Question

I'm trying to write a text file with Unix-style newlines with my C# program.

For some reason the following code doesn't work:

TextWriter fileTW = ...

fileTW.NewLine = "\n";

fileTW.WriteLine("Hello World!");

Neither does this:

TextWriter fileTW = ...

fileTW.Write("Hello World! + \n");

In both cases the '\n' is being replaced with '\r\n', which I don't want! I've been verifying this with a hex editor, which shows each line ending in 0x0D0A.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

EDIT:

Sorry everyone, false alarm!

Allow me to explain...

My TextWriter was writing to a MemoryStream, which was then being added to a tar archive using SharpZLib. It turns out that by extracting the text file using WinZIP, it was replacing every instance of \n with \r\n. If I copy the same tar archive to my Ubuntu machine and extract there, only the \n is there. Weird!

Sorry if I wasted anyone's time! Thanks!

Arcature

any reason you are using a TextWriter ? You can use a FileStram for example... – Hallowed

https://mcmap.net/q/487681/-net-quot-default-line-terminator-quot – Scissors

I'm using the TextWriter to write to MemoryStream first. – Arcature

It seems as if the /r is being added later on when I try to write my MemoryStream to file, and not by the TextWriter. Let me do a little digging and I'll get back to everyone! Thanks everyone for their time! – Arcature

Answer 1

I'm unable to reproduce this. Sample code:

using System;
using System.IO;

class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        using (TextWriter fileTW = new StreamWriter("test.txt"))
        {
            fileTW.NewLine = "\n";            
            fileTW.WriteLine("Hello");
        }
    }
}

Afterwards:

c:\users\jon\Test>dir test.txt
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 4062-9385

 Directory of c:\users\jon\Test

20/10/2011  21:24                 6 test.txt
               1 File(s)              6 bytes

Note the size - 6 bytes - that's 5 for "Hello" and one for the "\n". Without setting the NewLine property, it's 7 (two for "\r\n").

Can you come up with a similar short but complete program demonstrating the problem? How are you determining that your file contains "\r\n" afterwards?

Indention

Thanks Jon! Your code actually works as expected on my end too. It seems as if the /r is being added later on when I try to write my MemoryStream to file, and not by the TextWriter. Let me do a little digging and I'll get back to everyone! – Arcature

@dan6470: I very much doubt that MemoryStream is doing anything like that. Can you tell us more about what you're doing, and how you're checking for \r\n afterwards? – Indention

Answer 2

I'm in the same boat as Jon Skeet. Here's my tests against a MemoryStream that confirm it does use what you give it as the NewLine value.

[Test]
public void NewLineIsUnixStyle()
{
    using (var text = new MemoryStream())
    using (TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(text))
    {
        writer.NewLine = "\n";

        writer.WriteLine("SO");
        writer.Flush();

        text.Position = 0;
        var buffer = new byte[10];
        var b3 = buffer[3];
        Assert.AreEqual(3, text.Read(buffer, 0, 10));
        Assert.AreEqual('S', (char)buffer[0]);
        Assert.AreEqual('O', (char)buffer[1]);
        Assert.AreEqual('\n', (char)buffer[2]);
        Assert.AreEqual(b3, buffer[3]);
    }
}

[Test]
public void NewLineIsSomeTextValue()
{
    using (var text = new MemoryStream())
    using (TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(text))
    {
        writer.NewLine = "YIPPEE!";

        writer.WriteLine("SO");
        writer.Flush();

        text.Position = 0;
        var buffer = new byte[10];
        Assert.AreEqual(9, text.Read(buffer, 0, 10));
        Assert.AreEqual('S', (char)buffer[0]);
        Assert.AreEqual('O', (char)buffer[1]);
        Assert.AreEqual('Y', (char)buffer[2]);
        Assert.AreEqual('I', (char)buffer[3]);
        Assert.AreEqual('P', (char)buffer[4]);
        Assert.AreEqual('P', (char)buffer[5]);
        Assert.AreEqual('E', (char)buffer[6]);
        Assert.AreEqual('E', (char)buffer[7]);
        Assert.AreEqual('!', (char)buffer[8]);
        Assert.AreEqual(0, buffer[9]);
    }
}

Feel free modify one of these and update your answer with your scenario.

Josefinejoseito