From Wikipedia:

Different newline conventions often cause text files that have been transferred between systems of different types to be displayed incorrectly.  For example: files originating on Unix or Apple Macintosh systems may appear as a single long line on some Windows programs. Conversely, when viewing a file originating from a Windows computer on a Unix system, the extra CR may be displayed as ^M at the end of each line or as a second line break.

Therefore, depending on your operating system, you might need to convert a text file from one format to your OS format.

On Linux use the dos2unix command to convert a text file from MS-DOS format (or Mac format) to Unix format.

The flip utility can be used for converting Linux/Unix format text files to MAC or Windows/MS-DOS environments.