Appending a line to a file only if it does not already exist

Question

I need to add the following line to the end of a config file:

include \"/configs/projectname.conf\"

to a file called lighttpd.conf

Answer 1

use awk

awk 'FNR==NR && /configs.*projectname\.conf/{f=1;next}f==0;END{ if(!f) { print "your line"}} ' file file

Answer 2

I needed to edit a file with restricted write permissions so needed sudo. working from ghostdog74's answer and using a temp file:

awk 'FNR==NR && /configs.*projectname\.conf/{f=1;next}f==0;END{ if(!f) { print "your line"}} ' file > /tmp/file
sudo mv /tmp/file file

Answer 3

If, one day, someone else have to deal with this code as "legacy code", then that person will be grateful if you write a less exoteric code, such as

grep -q -F 'include "/configs/projectname.conf"' lighttpd.conf
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  echo 'include "/configs/projectname.conf"' >> lighttpd.conf
fi

Answer 4

The answers using grep are wrong. You need to add an -x option to match the entire line otherwise lines like #text to add will still match when looking to add exactly text to add.

So the correct solution is something like:

grep -qxF 'include "/configs/projectname.conf"' foo.bar || echo 'include "/configs/projectname.conf"' >> foo.bar

Answer 5

Using sed: It will insert at the end of line. You can also pass in variables as usual of course.

grep -qxF "port=9033" $light.conf
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  sed -i "$ a port=9033" $light.conf
else
    echo "port=9033 already added"
fi

Using oneliner sed

grep -qxF "port=9033" $lightconf || sed -i "$ a port=9033" $lightconf

Using echo may not work under root, but will work like this. But it will not let you automate things if you are looking to do it since it might ask for password.

I had a problem when I was trying to edit from the root for a particular user. Just adding the $username before was a fix for me.

grep -qxF "port=9033" light.conf
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  sudo -u $user_name echo "port=9033" >> light.conf
else
    echo "already there"    
fi

Answer 6

Here's a sed version:

sed -e '\|include "/configs/projectname.conf"|h; ${x;s/incl//;{g;t};a\' -e 'include "/configs/projectname.conf"' -e '}' file

If your string is in a variable:

string='include "/configs/projectname.conf"'
sed -e "\|$string|h; \${x;s|$string||;{g;t};a\\" -e "$string" -e "}" file