Sometimes, it’s hard to even find them. One pretty foolproof way on a Linux / Unix system is to use cat:

cat -e [filename]

This will show you lines with a $ at the end, and ^M’s should show up, if they are there. Here are a few options to remove them:

Method 1:

In the vi editor, do the following:

:.,$s/(ctrl-v)(ctrl-m)//g (enter)

After typing the (ctrl-v)(ctrl-m) combination, you should see a “^M” in the line (note, the ^M is NOT just a ‘^’ and an ‘M’, it’s a special control character. If you try to reproduce it without the control sequence I describe here, you’ll really mess up your file.

If you do screw something up, just type:

:q!

which will exit the editor without saving, and you can start fresh and try again.

Method 2: Using sed

From your Linux shell prompt, do the following:

sed -e 's/(cntrl-v)(cntrl-m)//g' [filename] > [new filename]

This creates a new file with the ^M’s removed

Method 3:

If your system has the ‘dos2unix’ utility, you can do this:

dos2unix [filename]


This has the advantage of replacing the original file, so you don’t need to move anything after running this command.