# In Unix, what do I do when a file I want to edit in vi says "Line too long"?

In Unix, when the vi editor says “line too long” it’s usually because it was copied up from a Mac where the end of line marker is different.

This command works for me on Solaris:

`tr '\015'   '\012' < in_file > out_file`

Source: [http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/help/faqs/files/dos-mac-to-unix.shtml](http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/help/faqs/files/dos-mac-to-unix.shtml)

The numbers are in octal. Be sure and transpose from decimal or hex if necessary.

- [<span class="caps">ASCII</span> Character Codes Conversion Chart](http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/pseries/v5r3/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.aix.commadmn/doc/commadmndita/conversion_table.htm)