UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I have around 50 text files containing raw data and i need to print them for further analysis. The problem I am facing is that, the files themselves do not have any identifying headers and as without the file names, the data is useless to me. My question is, is there a way to print the file's content and the file name (if possible, the path also) as the header/footer of the file.

I attempted to use the lpr but it didn't workout - probably due to my complete incompetence when it comes working with printer
Otherwise, my only alternative will be to print each file and manually write the file name..............

Hi.

One utility you can use is pr. For example, I have a file s2, and when I use pr s2, the header contains:

Code:

2007-06-18 14:57                        s2                        Page 1

To add the complete path, you can use pr $PWD/s2 to get:

Code:

2007-06-18 14:57            /home/drl/try/sam/s2                  Page 1

Note that pr will paginate your entire file, adding the title on each "page" -- see man pr for details and options... cheers, drl

Code:

(echo $PWD/your_file; cat your_file) | lpr

Hi.
I like that solution; I would add another echo:

Code:

(echo $PWD/your_file; echo; cat your_file) | lpr

for visual separation.

However, for many files, one would probably want to place this in a loop -- no one wants to do this 50 times manually. A script would be suitable, if one knows how to do that.

On the other hand, if one does not mind the pagination from pr, then:

Code:

pr $PWD/* | lpr

seems like a compact solution that processes all the files, the text for new files appearing at the top of a new page of paper, etc. In place of the *, other filename expressions could be used, e.g. a1[0-8] for a10, a11, ... a18, for subsets of filenames.

That's one of the useful characteristics of *nix, there is more than one approach to solving a problem ... cheers, drl

guys.....thanks for the quick suggestion............it worked like a dream.......just need to analyze all thoes stupid data.............