From: utzoo!decvax!cca!gwyn@Brl@sri-unix Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Title: CR vs. LF Article-I.D.: sri-unix.3110 Posted: Sat Sep 4 17:44:18 1982 Received: Wed Sep 8 06:54:59 1982 From: Doug GwynDate: 2 Sep 82 7:51:17-EDT (Thu) A carriage return '\r' returns the carriage without advancing the line; a line feed '\n' advances the line without returning the carriage. I think UNIX is on the right track when it stores text lines with a single terminating character rather than two (CR, LF). There is no defined constant for '\n' in for the same reason that there is no defined constant for '\0': conventions have been established and observed throughout the C language. The best solution is to map internal '\n' to/from whatever external representation you're stuck with, inside your system interface primitives.