Hi Guru's,

Eventhough I know basic shell scripting, Iam not an expert.
Can any one help me to get a logic/answer for the below requirement:

I've to create an output file "outputfile.txt" from many datafiles (ex: abc.dat, xyz.dat).
Header record layout for "outputfile.txt" should be $variable1 (from position 1-1), $variable2 (from position 16-20) and filled with space (from 021-121).

I've a list file "listfile.lst" which has the datafile names.
I've to read these file names one by one.
From each datafile I've to extract only detail records and have to appended to "outputfile.txt"

Can we do this thorough shell scripting or do we need to use awk?

Amy help would be much appreciated.

Mysore Ganapati

Please post output and source files examples.

Output file should be in the below format

Header
Detailed record 1
.
.
Detailed record n
Trailer

List file is in the below format:

input_file1
input_file2
.
.
input_filen

And input files are in the below format:
Header1
Header2
Header3
Detailed_record1
.
.
Detailed_recordn
Trailer

Fpr any more details pls ask.

Yes, file layout should be as mentioned above by Lokesha.

Thanks / Ganapati

maybe this solve the problem?
to print content between two string:

awk '/Header3/,/Trailer/' inputfile

Sorry Penyu,

Thanks for your try... But you've not got my question. My requirement is as follows:

1. I've a list file, which has some datafile names.
2. My programme has to read this list file (list_file.lst) line by line to get the datafile name.
3. Each datafile (inputfile) will have 3 header, data records and 1 trailer.
4. My program has to extract only data records from all the datafiles and has to append to only one output data file (outputfile.dat).

Hope this is clear.
With Regards / Ganapati

I'm also not an expert either but hope this will help you.

getRecords.ksh
============
for i in `cat list_file.lst`
do
grep -iv header $i | grep -iv trailer >> recordsFile
done

I tried this on HPUX using Kshell and it worked.