Concatenate multiple files but include filename as section headers

Question

I would like to concatenate a number of text files into one large file in terminal. I know I can do this using the cat command. However, I would like the filename of each fi

Answer 1

If you want the result in the same format as your desired output you can try:

for file in `ls file{1..3}.txt`; \
do echo $file | cut -d '.' -f 1; \ 
cat $file  ; done;

Result:

file1
bluemoongoodbeer
file2
awesomepossum
file3
hownowbrowncow

You can put echo -e before and after the cut so you have the spacing between the lines as well:

$ for file in `ls file{1..3}.txt`; do echo $file | cut -d '.' -f 1; echo -e; cat $file; echo -e  ; done;

Result:

file1

bluemoongoodbeer

file2

awesomepossum

file3

hownowbrowncow

Answer 2

I like this option

for x in $(ls ./*.php); do echo $x; cat $x | grep -i 'menuItem'; done

Output looks like this:

./debug-things.php
./Facebook.Pixel.Code.php
./footer.trusted.seller.items.php
./GoogleAnalytics.php
./JivositeCode.php
./Live-Messenger.php
./mPopex.php
./NOTIFICATIONS-box.php
./reviewPopUp_Frame.php
            $('#top-nav-scroller-pos-<?=$active**MenuItem**;?>').addClass('active');
            gotTo**MenuItem**();
./Reviews-Frames-PopUps.php
./social.media.login.btns.php
./social-side-bar.php
./staticWalletsAlerst.php
./tmp-fix.php
./top-nav-scroller.php
$active**MenuItem** = '0';
        $active**MenuItem** = '1';
        $active**MenuItem** = '2';
        $active**MenuItem** = '3';
./Waiting-Overlay.php
./Yandex.Metrika.php

Answer 3

When there is more than one input file, the more command concatenates them and also includes each filename as a header.

To concatenate to a file:

more *.txt > out.txt

To concatenate to the terminal:

more *.txt | cat

Example output:

::::::::::::::
file1.txt
::::::::::::::
This is
my first file.
::::::::::::::
file2.txt
::::::::::::::
And this is my
second file.

Answer 4

This is how I normally handle formatting like that:

for i in *; do echo "$i"; echo ; cat "$i"; echo ; done ;

I generally pipe the cat into a grep for specific information.

Answer 5

you can use this simple command instead of using a for loop,

ls -ltr | awk '{print $9}' | xargs head

Answer 6

If you want to replace those ugly ==> <== with something else

tail -n +1 *.txt | sed -e 's/==>/\n###/g' -e 's/<==/###/g' >> "files.txt"

explanation:

tail -n +1 *.txt - output all files in folder with header

sed -e 's/==>/\n###/g' -e 's/<==/###/g' - replace ==> with new line + ### and <== with just ###

>> "files.txt" - output all to a file