:%s/\s+$// incorrectly removes empty lines

[jpiche]

The command :%s/\s+$// is a common one for removing trailing whitespace from lines. Without the % range, :s/\s+$// works correctly on a single line, but with the % range (or 1,$) the expression incorrectly removes blank lines.

For example, running the command against the following (Github is removing whitespace :-/, hence the \ss instead of real spaces)

var a = 0
\s\s\s\s
var b = 1

should result in

var a = 0

var b = 1

but instead results in

var a = 0
var b = 1

Want to back this issue? Post a bounty on it! We accept bounties via Bountysource.

[squarefrog]

Do you feel up to writing a test case for this to make it easier to fix?

[pebble8888]

\s includes \n on ICU regular expressions.

Match a white space character. White space is defined as [\t\n\f\r\p{Z}].

http://userguide.icu-project.org/strings/regexp

So try to use this instead.
:s/[\u0020\t]+$//

[structAnkit]

I know this is a VIM-derived project but since it's a plugin for Xcode, have you considered setting your Xcode Editor options to remove trailing whitespace automatically?

[jpiche]

@structAnkit, the remove trailing whitespace feature of Xcode doesn't always work correctly, but even if it did, :%s/\s+$// still doesn't work as Vim does. Though @pebble8888's comment seems to explain why, and using :%s/[ \t]+$// did work for me.