UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

i have a file called motors with 3 columns separated with tabs eg:
car make reg
i want to create a executable file that will add a line with data eg:
car make reg
benz s600 t35778
can you please show me how to do this?

You can easily append data to the end of a file

Code:

echo "benz s600 t35778" >> motors

What do you have thus far?

thanks that works fine...
but do you know how to add tabs on the appended line so that it matches the top column?

can i apend the file using awk so i can use variables, if so please can you show me how?

Please describe where the data will be coming from and how it is currently formatted (with examples).
Will you be running this script repeatedly, or is it a one time deal?

the data will come from the user, the user will input the data from the bash.
there is an existing file called appointments with colummn 3 headings saperated by tabs date time venue

what i want is the user to append data to that file by typing an executable file first called addfile followed by parameters 24/12/78 14.04 newyork eg.
$ addfile 14/12/78 14.04 newyork

to produce a file like this:
date time venue
14/12/78 14.04 newyork

thanks

Here's the code in sh (bourne)

Code:

#!/usr/bin/sh

FILE="/path_to_file/appointments"

COL1=$1
COL2=$2
COL3=$3

if [ -f $FILE ]
then
   echo "$COL1\t$COL2\t$COL3\t" >> $FILE
else
   echo "File \"$FILE\" not found "
   exit 0
fi
exit 0

You'll probably want to:
1. add some error handling for when users don't provide three variables.
2. if you change this script to bash, you'll need to replace \t
3. add some usage message for the users.

It could be simplified to replace "$COL1" with $1, $COL2 with $2, $COL3 with $3 - but you probably want to know what is going on...