This is somewhat dependant on what os you are working under. In a unix environment there are native tools to do this.

On SCO Unix the commands are 'dtox' (dos to unix) and 'xtod' (unix to dos).
On Solaris the commands are 'dos2unix' and 'unix2dos'.
In linux (Red Hat I know of, maybe others) 'fixdos'.

I am sure that other *nix os'es have similar tools. Don't know if this helps with what you may be attempting to do, just thought I would add my 2.7 cents.