Add content to a file 1

[olli2003]

DEAR ALL

You know it's possible to add a content to an old file by using '>>'.
The new text or content will add.
F. EX. you will add at text 'def' to a text 'abc',
the new file will be:

abc
def

My question now, is it possible to add a content in the first row of the old one?

F. EX. if I want to add content 'def', like in this case,
the new file should be:

def
abc

Thanks in advance!

Regards
Oliver

 

[jprabaker]

Why don't you output your new content to a file, and then append the old content?

 

[hfaix]

Could could do it with sed

 

[olli2003]

Hi!

Thanks for all the information,
but what on earth is 'SED'?

Thanks in advance!

Regards
Oliver

 

[hfaix]

Sed is a stream editor. It's like a a batch vi.

try:

man sed
man ed

However, doing it like jprabaker suggested would be much easier.

 

[olli2003]

Hello hfaix

Thanks for yor help!

Regards
Oliver

 

[RodKnowlton]

Another approach:

echo "abc" > testfile

export NEWTEXT
NEWTEXT="def"

perl -i.bak -pe 'print "$ENV{NEWTEXT}\n" if $. == 1;' testfile

This performs an "in-place" edit of testfile, automagically handling the copying and renaming for you. After execution, "testfile" will have "def" prepended as the first row, and testfile.bak will have the original content. Use "-i" without the ".bak" if you don't want to preserve the original. The shell variable must be exported for the perl process to inherit it.

Rod Knowlton
IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert pSeries and AIX 5L
CompTIA Linux+
CompTIA Security+

 

[olli2003]

HI RodKnowlton

Great, that is what I want!

Thanks a lot,


Regards
Oliver