List content of one or more files with a header showing the file name

Question

Sometime ago I read a blog that showed a misuse of a commandline command that when given a list of files serially showed the content of each file and each file had header line showing the filename of the file below it. Could someone refresh my memory?

You mean, something other than `for file in *.txt; do echo "$file"; cat "$file"; done`? — Benjamin W., Dec 15 '15 at 15:18

Eugene Yarmash · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-15T16:23:16.187

1

You can use either tail or head for this: when given multiple files, both tools precede each file's contents with a header containing the file name.

$ for i in {1..3}; do echo line$i > file$i; done
$ tail file*
==> file1 <==
line1

==> file2 <==
line2

==> file3 <==
line3

To output the entire files instead of just the last/first 10 lines of each, use tail -n +1 or head -n -0.

edited Dec 15 '15 at 16:23

answered Dec 15 '15 at 15:23

Eugene Yarmash

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List content of one or more files with a header showing the file name

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