vim edited macro adding a ^J at the end

Question

I was trying out "continuing macros despite error" as mentioned here. My test code looks like this

this is line number 1
this is line 2
this is line 3
this is line 4
this is line 5
this is line 6
this is line 7
this is word 8
this is line 9
this is line 10
this is line 11

where I have already recorded below macro on the first line. This macro basically appends the text " number" after the first "e" find result and then goes and sits at the start of the the next line. (^[ is the Escape key.)

fea number^[j0

As per the above link, I modified this to

:try|norm fea number^[j0|catch||endtry^M

I want to run this macro to the end of the file, where it will not find the "e" character on line 8 but still continue due to the :try command.

The :try function works correctly, but overall the edited macro does not work as intended (it does something extra). On checking with :registers the same macro contents look like this

:try|norm fea number^[j0|catch||endtry^M^J

The additional and unexpected ^J makes the 2 lines join (not what I intend). Basically this, if ran on line 2 -

this is line number 1
this is line number 2 this is line 3
this is line 4

Where did this ^J come from ? What am I doing wrong? And how can I make this macro work as intended?

I tried this in git bash as well as in gvim (both on windows). Additionally :set ff? results in fileformat=unix.

Answer 1

This looks like a perfect use case for :help global:

:g/^this is line/norm fea number