1

Trying to find a linefeed within a binary file using vim -b, but any attempt at entering that byte value (e.g. control-v control-j, control-v 010, control-v u000a) turns into a NUL (^@) instead.

I've tried using vim 8.2.2029 and neovim v0.5.1 on MacOS Big Sur 11.6 along with vim 8.1.2269 in Ubuntu 20.04, observing the same behavior in each.

Improve this question
5
  • Not an answer but per :h keycodes this is apparently by design <NL> linefeed CTRL-J 10 (used for <Nul>). Wonder why...
    – B Layer
    Commented Nov 8, 2021 at 18:02
  • You could always temporarily filter the file through xxd (:%!xxd) and search for the hex value. Then undo to reverse. (Do NOT save! :)
    – B Layer
    Commented Nov 8, 2021 at 18:08
  • 1
    Importantly that filtering is best done with vim -b or :edit ++bin; otherwise you are likely to corrupt the file. My Hex plugin has some conveniences for that, but you still have to remember binary mode
    – D. Ben Knoble ♦
    Commented Nov 8, 2021 at 18:31
  • 1
    Or rather corrupt the buffer contents since the file won't be impacted as long as no saving is done.
    – B Layer
    Commented Nov 8, 2021 at 20:00
  • Apparently it's because lines are stored as NUL-terminated strings; it can't put an actual NUL character inside such a string, so it puts a LF instead. And the linefeeds in the file mark the boundaries between strings but are not themselves actually stored in memory – apparently not even in binary mode. <Nul> zero CTRL-@ 0 (stored as 10) *<Nul>*
    – Mark Reed
    Commented Nov 8, 2021 at 21:23

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

This is apparently by design. Internally, each line of the file is stored as a NUL-terminated string. The actual linefeeds from a file are not stored at all; they simply delimit the strings when a buffer is read from or written to a file. LF-valued bytes only show up in buffer memory to represent NULs, since there's no way to put a literal zero byte inside a NUL-terminated string.

So I guess the way to search for a linefeed value even in binary mode is to do a regex search for end-of-line ($).

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.