[vim, sed and vi] cannot :s/something/\n

[nekoexmachina]

Hello again, forums.
Got a strange problem with vim:
Some file:

some text here

Running
[CMD=":"]%s/ /\n/g[/CMD]
results in:

some^@text^@here

With vi, problem is (almost) same, the space symbols are just wiped out, e.g.:

sometexthere

locale, if matters: en_us.utf-8, no changes with c.
vimrc is very simple:

set nocp
syntax on
set autoindent "autoindenting
set expandtab "tab to space
set softtabstop=4 "tab = 4 space
set ignorecase "ignore case while searching
set background=dark "dark background
set hlsearch "highlight all fount results
set backup  "backup files
set incsearch "jump to found text while typing
set virtualedit=all

and problem is same with empty .vimrc
Problem is same with sed (as vi's), but not with tr & awk.
world was updated 11 days ago, 8-STABLE.
What is happening and how do i fix this?

 

[richardpl]

vim is not part of FreeBSD base system.

In vim \n is ^V^M, at least in your situation.

 

[nekoexmachina]

Yep, but sed and vi are.

 

[richardpl]

yep, but sed and vi are.

pebkac

 

[nekoexmachina]

pebkac

Ok, so, does
$ cat file_with_text|sed -e 's/some_text/\n/'
or, in vi
[CMD=":"]%s/some_text/\n/[/CMD]
works for you?

 

[jailed]

sed -e 'N;s/\n//

edit: sorry it's reverse. \n in substitute not working for me too.

 

[ckester]

An escaped newline in the sed command works:

$ echo "foo bar zot" | sed 's/ /\
/g'
foo
bar
zot

 

[ckester]

Using gsed from textproc/gsed allows you to use escape characters in the replacement string.

echo "foo bar zot" | gsed 's/ /\n/g'
foo
bar
zot

Linux uses GNU sed, FreeBSD does not. Perhaps that's the source of the confusion.