UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I want to write a generic shell script, which can concatenate n number of files passed as parameter ;to an output file which is again a parameter

Example
catfl.sh outfl.txt a.txt b.txt c.txt (3 files to be concatenated into a file outfl.txt)
catfl.sh outfl.txt a.txt b.txt(2 files to be concatenated into a file outfl.txt)

The directories in which the input files are stored would contain a number of other text files.

I am fairly new to unix . Any help as to how to acheive the above results is greatly appreciated.

Thanks much in advance!

Sam

Hi The most simplest script would be....

you would be able to supply full path names on the command line
If the files always live in the same place then you can code the path names in the script.....
Note: There is NO checking to ensure that the first file is the outputfile that you require and that the txt files actually exist and are readable.....


#!/bin/sh
if [ $# -ge 2 ] # Need to check to make sure we have 2 files as a min
then
outfile=$1
shift;
files=$*
cat $files > $outfile
else
echo "Usage: `basename $0` [output file] [textfile listing]"
fi

Great.

Thanks a lot

I think this will be more robust.......u can test this script for as many files as u want.....

#!/bin/sh
#script to cat number of files given as an argument
if [ $# -eq 0 ]
then
echo " Enter the files which are to be catted as argument "
fi
if [ $# -eq 1 ]
then
echo " usage :: $0 <outputfile> <inputfile1> <inputfile2> ......."
fi
count=`expr $# - 1`
echo $count
echo $*
#shift jam1 > jam2
#cat jam2
#i=2
catfile=$1
while [ $# -gt 1 ]
do
echo $*
cat $2 $3 > jam
shift 2
done
cat jam > catfile

txs,
jam