Append text to file from command line without using io redirection
LinuxCommand LineFile IoLinux Problem Overview
How can we append text in a file via a one-line command without using io redirection?
Linux Solutions
Solution 1 - Linux
If you don't mind using sed then,
$ cat test this is line 1 $ sed -i '$ a\this is line 2 without redirection' test $ cat test this is line 1 this is line 2 without redirection
As the documentation may be a bit long to go through, some explanations :
-i
means an inplace transformation, so all changes will occur in the file you specify$
is used to specify the last linea
means append a line after\
is simply used as a delimiter
Solution 2 - Linux
If you just want to tack something on by hand, then the sed
answer will work for you. If instead the text is in file(s) (say file1.txt and file2.txt):
Using Perl:
perl -e 'open(OUT, ">>", "outfile.txt"); print OUT while (<>);' file*.txt
N.B. while the >>
may look like an indication of redirection, it is just the file open mode, in this case "append".
Solution 3 - Linux
You can use the --append
feature of tee
:
cat file01.txt | tee --append bothFiles.txt
cat file02.txt | tee --append bothFiles.txt
Or shorter,
cat file01.txt file02.txt | tee --append bothFiles.txt
I assume the request for no redirection (>>
) comes from the need to use this in xargs
or similar. So if that doesn't count, you can mute the output with >/dev/null
.
Solution 4 - Linux
You can use Vim in Ex mode:
ex -sc 'a|BRAVO' -cx file
-
a
append text -
x
save and close