[SOLVED] How do I paste text into another text?

Mouse750 · 08-26-2011, 11:38 PM

How do I take the contents from one file and paste it into several other files?

=====================================

Example:

#file-01.txt
cat
dog
bird

#file-02.txt
tree

#file-03.txt
flower

=====================================

My goal:

#file-02.txt
cat
dog
bird
tree

#file-03.txt
cat
dog
bird
flower

=====================================

theNbomr · 08-27-2011, 12:12 AM

Since you want to append the content of one file onto another, the solution is trivial.

Code:

cat file1 >> file2

appends file1 to file2. The '>>' shell operator is the same as '>' but uses 'append' mode instead of 'over-write'.

--- rod.

Mouse750 · 08-27-2011, 12:49 AM

2 problems.

First,

=====================================

I ended up with:

#file-02.txt
tree
cat
dog
bird

#file-03.txt
flower
cat
dog
bird

=====================================

Instead of my goal.

Second,

I got an error when I tried a wild card

cat /first/path/file-01.txt >> /second/path/*txt

/second/path/*txt: ambiguous redirect

kurumi · 08-27-2011, 01:10 AM

If you have Ruby(1.9+)

Code:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
data=File.open("file-01").read
ARGF.argv.each do |file|
    o=File.open("temp","w")
    o.write(data)
    File.open(file).each { |x| o.write(x) }
    o.close
    File.rename("temp",file)
end

Pass the files are argument on the command line

Code:

$ ruby myscript.rb file-02.txt file-03.txt

EmaRsk · 08-27-2011, 01:28 AM

Bash:

Code:

mv file-01.txt foo
for target in file-??.txt; do
    mv $target bar
    cat foo bar >$target
done
rm bar
mv foo file-01.txt

MTK358 · 08-27-2011, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mouse750

cat /first/path/file-01.txt >> /second/path/*txt

You can't redirect into multiple files.

Also, use "*.txt", not "*txt". That way, you only match ".txt" files, not files whose names happen to end with "txt" (with or without the dot). Remember, Linux has no concept of file extensions.

Mouse750 · 08-27-2011, 11:05 AM

EmaRsk Can you please explain your code, I new at this. Also I need to paste this into several files, can I do that?

Thanks.

EmaRsk · 08-28-2011, 03:52 AM

Rename file-01.txt so it won't get matched by the "for" loop:

Code:

mv file-01.txt foo

For every file whose name match the shell pattern "file-??.txt" ("file-", 2 characters, ".txt"), do whatever is written until "done", with the file name being stored in the variable "target".

Code:

for target in file-??.txt; do

rename the file so we won't mess with the next step:

Code:

    mv $target bar

concatenate the content of "foo" (was "file-01.txt") and the file we just renamed into a file with that name:

Code:

    cat foo bar >$target

end of the "for" loop:

Code:

done

remove the last renamed file:

Code:

rm bar

and you can rename back "file-01.txt"

Code:

mv foo file-01.txt

"foo" and "bar" are just two names for temporary files: I wrote this code thinking that you'd type it directly in the shell, so you can check they won't accidentally overwrite existing files and change them if necessary, but if this is going into a script, you'll need some extra code to make the script check that.
Also, this code works only with the given set of filenames, if you need to "paste this into several files" you'll probably need a bit of reworking to make it more generic.

Mouse750 · 08-28-2011, 12:28 PM

Thank You EmaRsk!