Why should text files end with a newline?

Question

I assume everyone here is familiar with the adage that all text files should end with a newline. I\'ve known of this \"rule\" for years but I\'ve always wondered — why?

Answer 1

I've wondered this myself for years. But i came across a good reason today.

Imagine a file with a record on every line (ex: a CSV file). And that the computer was writing records at the end of the file. But it suddenly crashed. Gee was the last line complete? (not a nice situation)

But if we always terminate the last line, then we would know (simply check if last line is terminated). Otherwise we would probably have to discard the last line every time, just to be safe.