Can you please help add multiple lines of txt to the file via bash script through vim?

I tried this:

vim -c "3 s/^/
         add-this-line1
         add-this-line2
         add-this-line3/" -c "wq" /var/www/html/webserver/output_file.txt

But, the output of the file looks like this:

3 add-this-line1 add-this-line2 add-this-line3 

What I want to do is, add the lines one by one FROM the line 3 in the output_file.txt not at the line 3 one next to another.

CodePudding user response：

This is more of a job for ed, IMO

seq 10 > file

ed file <<END_ED
3a
first
second
third
.
wq
END_ED

cat file

1
2
3
first
second
third
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

CodePudding user response：

if you really want to do it via vim, I believe you need to insert new lines in your substitution:

vim -c "3 s/^/add-this-line1\radd-this-line2\radd-this-line3\r/" -c "wq" /var/www/html/webserver/output_file.txt

CodePudding user response：

With ex or ed if available/acceptable.

printf '%s\n' '3a' 'foo' 'bar' 'baz' 'more' . 'w output_file.txt' | ex -s input_file.txt

Replace ex with ed and it should be the same output.

Using a bash array to store the data that needs to be inserted.

to_be_inserted=(foo bar baz more)

printf '%s\n' '3a' "${to_be_inserted[@]}" . 'w output_file.txt' | ex -s inputfile.txt

• Again change ex to ed should do the same.

• If the input file needs to be edited in-place then remove the output_file.txt just leave the w.

Though It seems you want to insert from the beginning of the line starting from line number "3 s/^/

Give the file.txt that was created by running

printf '%s\n' {1..10} > file.txt

A bit of shell scripting would do the trick.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

start=3

to_be_inserted=(
 foo
 bar
 baz
 more
)

for i in "${to_be_inserted[@]}"; do
  printf -v output '%ds/^/%s/' "$start" "$i"
  ed_array =("$output")
  ((start  ))
done

printf '%s\n' "${ed_array[@]}" ,p Q | ed -s file.txt

Output

1
2
foo3
bar4
baz5
more6
7
8
9
10

• Change Q to w if in-place editing is needed.

• Remove the ,p if you don't want to see the output.