How to edit a file in Vim with all lines ending in ^M except the last line ending in ^M^J

Question

I have a bunch of files that I need to look at. All lines in these files end in ^M (\x0D) except the very last line that ends in ^M^J (\x0D\x0A).

Obviously, Vim determines the filetype to be DOS with the effect that the file's entire content is displayed on one single line like so:

some text foo^Mmore text and^Ma few control-m^Ms and more and more

Since I don't want to change the files' content: is there a setting in Vim that allows to look at these files with the new lines as I'd expect them to be?

Answer 1

If you do not mind having a line at the bottom containing a single ^J character, you can set fileformats (note the s at the end) to mac and reload the buffer:

:set fileformats=mac
:edit

Or equivalently you could start the editor as follows:

vim -R "+set fileformats=mac" "+edit" <filename>

The -R (readonly) option is there because you stated you do not want to change the files.

I did not find a way that does not involve reloading the buffer.