KDE's Kontact PIM breaks quoted-printable vcard files because it
linebreaks in the middle of a word. Take this text for example:

NOTE;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=A
 8=D7=90=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A0=D7=94.\n=D7=94=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=94=D7=
 A9=D7=A0=D7=99=D7=94 =D7=9B=D7=\n

Try this:

perl -pi.bak -e 'BEGIN { $/=""; } s/\n //gm' *.vcard

Thanks. I am trying to see what happens here:
perl: this is obvious
-pi.bak: simply copy the current file to it's name + .bak?
-e: there is no mention of this in man perl.
'BEGIN { $/=""; } s/\n //gm': the actual regex. I don't quite get it
*.vcard: go through all these files?

I actually need to change the regex so that it not only removes the space at the beginning of a line, but removes the newline character as well. The only newline characters that should remain are those not followed by a space. In php that would be str_replace("\n ", "", $string); however I cannot figure out the perl regex to modify it as such. And regexes are hard to google for!

I do appreciate the code example, but I am also trying to learn a bit (unusual, I know). I very much appreciate your assistance and patience.

As far as I can see my solution does what you describe:

$ cat testfile.vcard
NOTE;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=A
 8=D7=90=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A0=D7=94.\n=D7=94=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=94=D7=
 A9=D7=A0=D7=99=D7=94 =D7=9B=D7=\n
NOTE;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=A
 8=D7=90=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A0=D7=94.\n=D7=94=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=94=D7=
 A9=D7=A0=D7=99=D7=94 =D7=9B=D7=\n
NOTE;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=A
 8=D7=90=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A0=D7=94.\n=D7=94=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=94=D7=
 A9=D7=A0=D7=99=D7=94 =D7=9B=D7=\n
$ perl -pi.bak -e 'BEGIN { $/=""; } s/\n //gm' *.vcard
$ cat testfile.vcard
NOTE;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=A8=D7=90=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A0=D7=94.\n=D7=94=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=94=D7=A9=D7=A0=D7=99=D7=94 =D7=9B=D7=\n
NOTE;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=A8=D7=90=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A0=D7=94.\n=D7=94=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=94=D7=A9=D7=A0=D7=99=D7=94 =D7=9B=D7=\n
NOTE;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=A8=D7=90=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A0=D7=94.\n=D7=94=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=94=D7=A9=D7=A0=D7=99=D7=94 =D7=9B=D7=\n

Thanks. I'm going through the docs as we speak. Perl is _complicated_! That does not seem to be my own opinion, either. Googling some example leads me to lots of frustrated people!

In any case, I probably should have posted the entire vcard file. Here it is, along with the results of the code:

hardy2@hardy2-laptop:~/test$ cat test.vcf
BEGIN:VCARD
FN:First Last
N:Last;First;;;
NOTE;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:First Line.\nThe Second Line i
 s long so that it will wrap. Long\, long\, and wrapping!=\n\nThird Line.\n
UID:frh74xvYZ9
VERSION:2.1
END:VCARD

BEGIN:VCARD
FN;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=90=D7=90=D7=A4=D7=A8=D7=98=D
 7=99 =D7=9E=D7=A9=D7=A4=D7=97=D7=94
N;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=9E=D7=A9=D7=A4=D7=97=D7=94;=D
 7=90=D7=90=D7=A4=D7=A8=D7=98=D7=99;;;
NOTE;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=A
 8=D7=90=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A0=D7=94.\n=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=A9=D7=A0=D7=
 99=D7=94 =D7=94=D7=99=D7=90 =D7=\n=90=D7=A8=D7=95=D7=9B=D7=94\, =D7=9B=D7=9
 3=D7=99 =D7=A9=D7=A0=D7=A8=D7=90=\n =D7=90=D7=95=D7=AA=D7=94 =D7=92=D7=95=D
 7=9C=D7=A9=D7=AA. =D7=90=D7=A8=D7=\n=95=D7=9B=D7=94\, =D7=90=D7=A8=D7=95=D7
 =9B=D7=94\, =D7=95=D7=92=D7=95=D7=9C=\n=D7=A9=D7=AA!\n=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7
 =94 =D7=A9=D7=9C=D7=99=D7=A9=D7=99=D7=AA.\n
UID:KqbQKbfBaF
VERSION:2.1
END:VCARD

hardy2@hardy2-laptop:~/test$ perl -pi.bak -e 'BEGIN { $/=""; } s/\n //gm' *.vcf
hardy2@hardy2-laptop:~/test$ cat test.vcf
BEGIN:VCARD
FN:First Last
N:Last;First;;;
s long so that it will wrap. Long\, long\, and wrapping!=\n\nThird Line.\ni
UID:frh74xvYZ9
VERSION:2.1
END:VCARD

BEGIN:VCARD
7=99 =D7=9E=D7=A9=D7=A4=D7=97=D7=94INTABLE:=D7=90=D7=90=D7=A4=D7=A8=D7=98=D
7=90=D7=90=D7=A4=D7=A8=D7=98=D7=99;;;ABLE:=D7=9E=D7=A9=D7=A4=D7=97=D7=94;=D
=94 =D7=A9=D7=9C=D7=99=D7=A9=D7=99=D7=AA.\nA9=D7=AA!\n=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7
UID:KqbQKbfBaF
VERSION:2.1
END:VCARD

hardy2@hardy2-laptop:~/test$

I'm suspecting there are some funny line terminators in this file. Can you post the output of cat -vet test.vcf?

I agree about perl, it looks pretty horrible and I was a very slow adopter; but its brevity, power and ubiquity make it difficult to live without. I generally use awk when I can, but perl is ideal for this problem due to its convenient handling of multi-line regex.

hardy2@hardy2-laptop:~$ cat -vet test.vcf
BEGIN:VCARD^M$
FN:First Last^M$
N:Last;First;;;^M$
NOTE;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:First Line.\nThe Second Line i^M$
 s long so that it will wrap. Long\, long\, and wrapping!=\n\nThird Line.\n^M$
UID:frh74xvYZ9^M$
VERSION:2.1^M$
END:VCARD^M$
^M$
BEGIN:VCARD^M$
FN;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=90=D7=90=D7=A4=D7=A8=D7=98=D^M$
 7=99 =D7=9E=D7=A9=D7=A4=D7=97=D7=94^M$
N;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=9E=D7=A9=D7=A4=D7=97=D7=94;=D^M$
 7=90=D7=90=D7=A4=D7=A8=D7=98=D7=99;;;^M$
NOTE;CHARSET=UTF-8;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=A^M$
 8=D7=90=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A0=D7=94.\n=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7=94 =D7=A9=D7=A0=D7=^M$
 99=D7=94 =D7=94=D7=99=D7=90 =D7=\n=90=D7=A8=D7=95=D7=9B=D7=94\, =D7=9B=D7=9^M$
 3=D7=99 =D7=A9=D7=A0=D7=A8=D7=90=\n =D7=90=D7=95=D7=AA=D7=94 =D7=92=D7=95=D^M$
 7=9C=D7=A9=D7=AA. =D7=90=D7=A8=D7=\n=95=D7=9B=D7=94\, =D7=90=D7=A8=D7=95=D7^M$
 =9B=D7=94\, =D7=95=D7=92=D7=95=D7=9C=\n=D7=A9=D7=AA!\n=D7=A9=D7=95=D7=A8=D7^M$
 =94 =D7=A9=D7=9C=D7=99=D7=A9=D7=99=D7=AA.\n^M$
UID:KqbQKbfBaF^M$
VERSION:2.1^M$
END:VCARD^M$
^M$
hardy2@hardy2-laptop:~$