Combine linux commands into one output

Question

I cat some files into a markdown parser, and want to pre/ap-pend a head/foot-er. Currently, I do it with a few commands, but would like to do it with a one liner. Here is the command I want to add to...

cat  `find .. -name "*.md" -type f` | marked

That produces the middle of my document, so I would like to do something like...

cat head.template (cat `find ... ` | marked)

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

3

Try grouping the "source" commands like this:

{ cat header_part ; cat `find ...` ; cat footer_part } | marked

If you only want the middle part parsed:

{ cat header_part ; cat `find ...` | marked ; cat footer_part } > output_file

Thanks to Ansgar Wiechers, prefer $() over backticks:

{ cat header_part ; cat $(find ...) | marked ; cat footer_part ) > output_file

edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

Community

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answered Mar 21 '13 at 11:21

Mat

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Almost, but I only want the middle one to be parsed by marked... maybe I will try moving the grouping braces – Billy Moon Mar 21 '13 at 11:40
No need for a family of `cat`s: `cat header_part $(find ... | marked) footer_part > output_file` – Ansgar Wiechers Mar 21 '13 at 12:04
@Ansgar: in fact that doesn't do the same thing, will need to keep the family of cats. – Mat Mar 21 '13 at 12:28
FWIW, `find .. -name '*.md' -type f -exec cat {} +` is going to be – Josh Cartwright Mar 21 '13 at 12:40

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 21 '13 at 12:02

0

This works for me, a combination of $( ... commands ... ) and back ticks.

echo `cat head.html.snippet`  `cat $(find .. -name "*.md" -type f) | marked` `cat foot.html.snippet` > all.htm

answered Mar 21 '13 at 12:02

Billy Moon

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 21 '13 at 14:29

This uses less subprocesses and works if the names contain spaces:

shopt -s globstar; { cat head.html.snippet; cat ../**/*.md | marked; cat foot.html.snippet; } > all.htm

You could also use process substitution:

cat head.html.snippet <(find .. -name '*.md' -exec cat {} \+ | marked) foot.html.snippet > all.htm

Combine linux commands into one output

3 Answers3