When some browsers encounter multiple-line entry fields (also known as HTML TEXTAREAs), they send a carriage return line feed sequence to the CGI program. When this sequence is subsequently output to files on operating systems that terminate text lines with line feed characters, the data may appear to be double spaced.
If desired, you can configure the runtime to automatically remove carriage return characters from HTML data entered in multiple-line entry fields. To do so, set the runtime configuration variable CGI_STRIP_CR to "1" (on, true, yes). Stripping the carriage returns from this kind of input prevents double-spacing problems, as well as conflicts that may arise if the data is used in a context that does not expect a carriage return character to precede each line feed character. The default value for this variable is "0" (off, false, no).
For example, if an end user enters the following three lines in a TEXTAREA for a field called "thetext":
Sometext line 1 Sometext line 2 Sometext line 3
The browser sends the following to the CGI program:
thetext=Sometext+line+1%0D%0ASometext+line+2%0D%0ASometext+line+3%0D%0A
If the CGI_STRIP_CR is set to "1" (on, true, yes), the runtime strips the carriage return characters so that the input line is the following:
thetext=Sometext+line+1%0ASometext+line+2%0ASometext+line+3%0A