line separator : Java Glossary

• Windows/DOS uses [CrLf] [\r\n] [0x0d 0x0a] to terminate each line.
• The web, Unix, Linux and Mac OS (Operating System) uses [Lf] [\n] [0x0a] to terminate each line.
• The older Mac OS 1-9 uses [Cr] [\r] [0x0d] to terminate each line.

If you use the readLine and println methods, Java automatically deals with the platform differences for you.

The last line in a file may or may not have a line separator.

I am not sure what the best technique for writing Unix-convention \n files on Windows is. You could try setting the line.separator system property, though Oracle recommends against it.

// prepare to produce Unix-format text files on a Windows machine
System.setProperty( "line.separator", "\n" );

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