How to append a stirng from Vi editor to a file at 4th line.

[Pawan Sangal]

Hi

I am trying to insert a string at the begining of 4th line into a file.


$ vi ppp.sh
#! /bin/bash

a="pawan"
echo "$a" | `:3,5w >> ggg`


On executing the "sh ppp.sh", Iam getting below error.
ppp.sh: line 1: :3,5w: command not found
ppp.sh: line 2: `:3,5w >> ggg`: ambiguous redirect

I think Iam doing something wrong. Can anybody suggest me the correct way to insert the string "pawan" at the 4th line number in "ggg" file.

[Cabhan]

Er...you've just written a script that invokes the Bash command ':3,5w', with stdin containing "pawan", and asking it to append to the file 'ggg'.

If you're trying to do this with vi, just run "vi ggg", press "3G" in command mode, then "o", and you'll now have inserted a new line above the previously 4th line. Or if you want to insert it at the beginning of the 4th line (and not above it), press "4G", then "I".

In vi, "#G" moves you to line number #, 'o' makes a new line below the current line and puts you into insert mode at the beginning of that line, and 'I' puts you into insert mode at the beginning of the current line.

Run the command "vimtutor" to get a basic tutorial of vi. You can also Google for some good resources. vi is a very powerful editor, but it has a _very_ steep learning curve.


If your intention is to add something to the 4th line of a file from the commandline, without using a text editor, you can use the sed utility. For instance, for your particular example:

sed -e '{ 4 s/^/pawan/ }'

This takes the 4th line, and "replaces" the beginning of the line with "pawan", in effect prepending "pawan" to the line.

[thedondj]

Hi,

I'm not a good enough bash programmer to debug your code. I think this should acheive the same purpose though.

sed ' 4 { s/^/pawan/ }' -i ggg

this should have sed replace the empty string at the beginning of line 4 with the string pawan in file ggg

Hope That Helps

[Sangal-Arun]

File is:

[/E*Fare/testteam/public/pf3/nggfstatic/4k-pf3_3.case
REGION1:
/E*Fare/dist/src/nggfstaticbase/EFare/Server
CODEBASE1:
/dev_tools/LINUXMTP-4/EFS070718E/EFare/Server
DATABASE1: nggfstatic
SCRIPT: /efare1/admin/ezlcn/scripts/pf3_3_scriptlist.input
PROLOGINITSIZE not yet set
You are using: time
PROLOGINITSIZE is  200M
DATABASE CONFIG FILE: config/spserver-nggfstatic
.
.
.
.
.
.
200 - 300 lines

and value inside $lines is:

Time1
Time2
Time3
Time4
Time5

Now, I want to insert the value of "$lines" between the lines below from file ggg:

PROLOGINITSIZE is  200M
DATABASE CONFIG FILE: config/spserver-nggfstatic

Kindly help, in what all ways we can efficiently achieve this.

[Sangal-Arun]

Cabhan- Can you pls provide how to add pawan if it is stored in a variable...
>>>> '"$val"' ????

[Franklin52]

To insert the variable after the 10th line:

sed "10 s/$/\n$val/" ggg

To insert the variable after the searchline "PROLOGINITSIZE is 200M":

sed "s/"PROLOGINITSIZE is  200M"/&\n$val/" ggg

Regards

[scm]

To insert the variable after the 10th line:

sed "10 s/$/\n$val/" ggg

To insert the variable after the searchline "PROLOGINITSIZE is 200M":

sed "s/"PROLOGINITSIZE is  200M"/&\n$val/" ggg

Regards

Have you actually tried this? Your use of quotes leaves much to be desired.

[Franklin52]

You're right, it ought not to be allowed, thanks for your attention, I apologize.
This line:

sed "s/"PROLOGINITSIZE is  200M"/&\n$val/" ggg

should be:

sed "s/PROLOGINITSIZE is  200M/&\n$val/" ggg

Regards