Shell Script To Combine Any Three Text Files Into a Single File

by Vivek Gite on September 17, 2008

#!/bin/bash
# Write a shell script to combine any three text files into a single file
# (append them in the order as then appear in the arguments) and display
# the word count.
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Copyright (c) 2001 nixCraft project <http://cyberciti.biz/fb/>
# This script is licensed under GNU GPL version 2.0 or above
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
# This script is part of nixCraft shell script collection (NSSC)
# Visit http://bash.cyberciti.biz/ for more information.
# -------------------------------------------------------------------------
file1=$1
file2=$2
file3=$3
out="output.$$"
count=0
if [ $# -ne 3 ]
then
	echo "$(basename $0) file1 file2 file3"
	exit 1
fi
if [ ! -f $file1 ]
then
	echo "$file1 not a file!"
	exit 2
fi
if [ ! -f $file2 ]
then
	echo "$file2 not a file!"
	exit 3
fi
if [ ! -f $file3 ]
then
	echo "$file3 not a file!"
	exit 4
fi
cat $file1 $file2 $file3 >> $out
count=$(cat $out | wc -w)
echo "$count words written to $out"

#!/bin/bash

# Write a shell script to combine any three text files into a single file

# (append them in the order as then appear in the arguments) and display

# the word count.

# -------------------------------------------------------------------------

# This script is licensed under GNU GPL version 2.0 or above

# -------------------------------------------------------------------------

# This script is part of nixCraft shell script collection (NSSC)

# Visit http://bash.cyberciti.biz/ for more information.

# -------------------------------------------------------------------------

file1=$1

file2=$2

file3=$3

out="output.$$"

count=0

if [ $# -ne 3 ]

then

echo "$(basename $0) file1 file2 file3"

exit 1

if [ ! -f $file1 ]

then

echo "$file1 not a file!"

exit 2

if [ ! -f $file2 ]

then

echo "$file2 not a file!"

exit 3

if [ ! -f $file3 ]

then

echo "$file3 not a file!"

exit 4

cat $file1 $file2 $file3 >> $out

count=$(cat $out | wc -w)

echo "$count words written to $out"

Tagged as: cat file1, exit 1, fi, if command, shell script, single file, wc command, word count

{ 3 comments… add one }

Pravin March 5, 2014, 5:07 pm
There is a typo error on line 36:
if [ ! -f $file ]
should be
if [ ! -f $file3 ]
Reply Link
- nixcraft March 12, 2014, 9:13 am
  Thanks for the heads up!
  Reply Link
hunterm October 23, 2010, 2:38 am
There’s also this really nice command called:
$ cat file1 file2 file3 >combine
Reply Link

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