CRLF vs. LF

• 2018/08/26

CRLF

• CRLF (Carriage Return + Line Feed) is represented by \r\n.
• It denotes returning the cursor and then breaking the line.

LF

• LF (Line Feed) is represented by \n.
• It only represents a line break.

OS differences

• Windows uses CRLF.
• Linux and other Unix-like systems use LF.

The origin supposedly traces back to typewriters.

Closing thought

Line endings can be surprisingly annoying in enterprise systems.