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Issues with Line Endings in Text Files

Windows text files by default have line endings of \r\n, but linux/unix text files have line endings of \n. Often times, files originated from windows may not work for linux because of this (e.g. for python-based mappers and reducers).

How would I know the line endings were \r\n instead of \n?

A quick way to see if the file has windows line ending is through vim. 

vi file.py
type :set list to see line endings. If it is windows line endings, you will see ^M at end of each line. Type :q to exit the vi editor.

How to fix it?

To replace windows line endings with linux ones, use linux command: 

sed -i 's/\r//g' file.py

How to prevent this?

If you have to edit a file in windows, please create the file in Linux or copy an existing linux-originated file (so it has the right endings), then edit it.