So maybe it has got something to do with the file being originated in wondows.

Yes, it has everything to do with that.

The dos2unix utility is your friend.

You can fix it with perl too using a command like like:

perl -i.bak -pe 's/\r\n/\n/' file.txt
[download]

BTW, vi tries to be smart about whether it displays those ^M characters... which is probably why you didn't see them the first go around.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";