See line breaks and carriage returns in editor

Question

Does anyone know of a text editor on Linux that allows me to see line breaks and carriage returns? Does Vim support this feature?

Answer 1

VI shows newlines (LF character, code x0A) by showing the subsequent text on the next line.

Use the -b switch for binary mode. Eg vi -b filename or vim -b filename --.

It will then show CR characters (x0D), which are not normally used in Unix style files, as the characters ^M.

Answer 2

To disagree with the official answer:

:set list will not show ^M characters (CRs). Supplying the -b option to vi/vim will work. Or, once vim is loaded, type :e ++ff=unix.