UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I am using a BASH shell script written on a Mac running OS X to edit kml files for Google Earth. This requires me to basically piece together parts of various files. In addition, I also must insert lines of code that I myself have created. I would like to maintain the formatting of these files when I insert my own code, which requires that I insert tab spaces. How do I do that?

After reading the forum I understand that this appears to be a complicated task. However, I have not been able to figure out how to do this. Thanks a lot for any help!

Mike

without knowing more about 'lines of code that I myself have created', it's hard to say....

Code:

printf "foo\tbar"
echo 'foo bar' | awk '{printf("%s\t%s\n", $1, $2)}'
echo 'foo bar' | awk -v OFS='\t'  '{print $1, $2}'

Hi vgersh99,

Thank you for your reply! Here is a better explanation of how I would like to use the tab spaces. I basically want the line of code that I insert to line up with the code above it, which will be a few tab spaces in. So if the code above is 2 tabs in I thought I would have code like this:

Code:

echo tab tab 'this line starts two tabs in'

I guess I could use:

Code:

echo ''

and just use enough

Code:

''

to equal the space created by a tab, but that seems inefficient.

Mike

How about:

Code:

printf '\t\tthis line starts two tabs in\n'

Sorry, I'm not following the above.....