LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] batch cat with a file name

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batch cat with a file name

Hi guys,

I need to run the cat command over several files, and have it keep adding onto a summary file, something like:

psuedo-code

Code:

cat ABC.txt DEF.txt > summary.sum

cat DEF.txt summary.sum > summary.sum

cat GHI.txt summary.sum > summary.sum

cat JKL.txt summary.sum > summary.sum

etc...

so I think I can do this part with a "for loop" if it was just this part.

but I also need to have the files' names inside the summary.sum file for each block of data that was cat'd in, something like this for the output summary.sum file format

Code:



ABC.txt

calc1 = 123

calc2 = 456

calc3 = 789



DEF.txt

calc1 = 001

calc2 = 010

calc3 = 100



GHI.txt 

calc1 = -.015

calc2 = 462

calc3 = 9078.75



JKL.txt

calc1 = 987

calc2 = 654

calc3 = 321

can someone here please help me,

Tabitha

Try this:

for file in ABC.txt DEF.txt GHI.txt; do
echo $file
cat $file
echo
done > summary.txt

You need to use the echo command to print the file name I threw together a quick script that did what you asking

Code:

#!/bin/bash



output_file="out.txt"



for File in "$@"

do

        echo $File >> $output_file

        cat  $File >> $output_file

        echo "" >> $output_file

done

Note the use of the varible @ this is all the passed arguments wich is then looped though. The last echo adds a new line

I tried it on 4 files named exfile_1, exfile_2 etc.. Which took the form:

Code:

File1_Line1

File1_Line2

File1_Line3

File1_Line4

After calling the script like this

Code:

./cat_files_with_names.sh exfile_{1..4}.txt

A new file "out.txt " was created wich contained:

Code:

exfile_1.txt

File1_Line1

File1_Line2

File1_Line3

File1_Line4



exfile_2.txt

File2_Line1

File2_Line2

File2_Line3

File2_Line4



exfile_3.txt

File3_Line1

File3_Line2

File3_Line3

File3_Line4



exfile_4.txt

File4_Line1

File4_Line2

File4_Line3

File4_Line4

Also note that if the script is run twice there the new results are appended to the file in totality.
HTH - let me know if this is the solution you where looking for.

I used the command:

Code:

sh ./cat_files_with_names.sh exfile*.txt

and that seemed to work, giving exactly the outcome I need, thanks sooooooo much :)

I have never seen the bash "$@" what is that doing?

and what's the difference between > and >>

thanks again,

Tabitha

If you use the shebang line at the top of a shell script thus

Code:

#!/bin/sh

then there's no need to say 'sh ./my.sh ..', just use './my.sh ..'

The input params to a shell script can be expressed as an array ($@) or as a single string ($*).

> = overwrite/start a new file
>> = append to target

See these links for ref
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-G...tml/index.html
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/

Thanks Chris!

Tabby