in reply to handling different new line characters

A bit different approach, using an existing utility:

In the quest for a utility to convert between *nix and DOS newlines on a regular basis, I have found flip: Newline conversion between Unix, Macintosh and MS-DOS ASCII files to be useful. It not only converts between DOS and Unix file formats, but also includes a handy -t command-line switch to tell you which format a given file uses.

HTH,

planetscape