UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Good morning. I have a piece of code that is currently taking multiple files and using the CAT.exe command to combine into one file that is then sorted in reverse order based on the 3rd field of the file, then displayed on screen. I am trying to change this so that the files are being combined into one file, that one file sorted on the 3rd field in reverse order, and then saved. So I want to take it from 1 step/line of code to 3 steps. Combine, sort and then save.

This is what I had originally:

Code:

#print system("cat.exe tmp\\*.log | c:\\wbin\\sort.exe -k 3 -r ");

This is what I have been trying to change to, with no luck - No error messages apprear, but no new file appears either.

Code:

#print system("cat.exe tmp\\*.log | tmp\\TTLog.txt");
#print system("c:\\wbin\\sort.exe -k 3 -r  tmp\\TTLog.txt");

Any assistance, suggestions, and help would be greatly appreciated! I have tried with the .txt file created with no data in it and also with the .txt file not created in the directory. Neither way gave error message, and went through debugger with no problems. However, neither way populated the txt file as I wanted, let along sorted it out.

I have also tried to use a '>' rather than the '|' character in the line of code with Cat.exe in it. This did not help either.

The text file will then be moved from this location to a history location and the next new file will be created the following month. Thank you in advance!!

How are your fields delimited?

Is this Cygwin, gnu stuff under dos or ??? with the exe files?

This is how UNIX does it:

Code:

sort -r +2 -3 files*.txt

The fields in the Log files are all delimited by tabs. I have a total of 14 Log files in this folder. I need to combine them into one large file first. That file will have to be sorted and saved.

I thought if I could do a Cat command in Unix and then a Sort command in Unix this would solve the issue. I can find MANY examples of both commands, but when I try to replicate the examples, my ONE file is NOT being created/updated/saved ever.

I would think the Cat command would be set up similar to (logically) Cat.exe all files with the extension of .log (*.log) into ('|' or '>') one large text file (file.txt). Is there a problem with combining files of one extension into one file with a different extension?

Then of course logically I would think I could then use sort to sort the now populated large file (.txt file) in reverse order based on the 3rd field in this large file.

Finally I want to save this file, then move it to another location so it can be utilized in the future for aduits.

I think your syntax is wrong. You don't pipe to/from files, only between processes. To files, you redirect. <file reads, >file writes.

If you're using the windows CMD shell and not a real UNIX shell, "cat *.txt" won't work, * won't expand. * only works for a few special command like DEL and COPY in windows CMD.

You could try find, which will run cat many times and put them all together, but I don't think it will sort the names that way.

Code:

c:\wbin\find.exe .\tmp -name '*.log' -exec cat '{}' ';' | c:\wbin\sort.exe -k 3 -r > outputfile

If you have a c:\wbin\sh.exe, you should be able to run it to get a real shell, and 'cat tmp/*.log' in that and get what you expect. "c:\wbin\sh.exe scriptfile.sh" to run scriptfile.sh from disk so you don't have to type a painful number of arguments into your system() command.

Thank you for your assistance! This worked perfectly for what I want to have accomplished!!!