:%s/[ ]*$//g
Why does the regular expression above squeeze >=1 spaces at the end of any line to exactly one but not 0 spaces?
:%s/[ ]*$//g Why does the regular expression above squeeze >=1 spaces at the end
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:%s/[ ]*$//g
Why does the regular expression above squeeze >=1 spaces at the end of any line to exactly one but not 0 spaces?
Your regex works. There are no spaces left at the end of the line after you run it.
What you probably see is the “residual” incremental highlighting that would go away if you used
:%s/[ ]\+$//g. — Note the\+instead of the*. the incremental highlighting remains because*always matches, even with zero spaces.To remove the highlighting, type
:noh(short for:nohlsearch).FYI:
:%s/[ ]*$//gis equivalent to:%s/ *$//g.