I built a little shell script to handle the inserting of trigger codes to an ascii print file...basically I have a file with the codes I need at the top of the print file and at the bottom, I cat them all together with the current print data and send to another print queue. It works well...

Now I want to actually insert codes into the middle of the file...ie: I want to goto line 2 and insert some stuff into the begining of that line, or I want to search for a paticular word and insert stuff there...I need help...I'd like to do this all as variables (I mean I don't want to write an acutal data file, unless you can tell me how to create a filename that is random so that if this script is being run by multiple users it won't overwrite..

My current script..

#!/bin/sh
QUEUE=printerqueue
HEADER=/usr/local/lib/header.file
TRAILER=/usr/local/lib/trailer.file
options$5
shift 5
for FILE in $*
do
cat $HEADER $FILE $TRAILER | lp -d $QUEUE
done
exit 0

Thoughts...Any help would be appreciated...

Doug.

Use this

# example 1
cat OLDFILE | awk '{
i=i+1
if ( i = 2 )
{
print "Hallo" $0 >> "NEWFILE"
}
else
{
print $0 >> "NEWFILE"
}
}'
# example 2
cat OLDFILE | awk '{
if ( $1 = "Mike" )
{
print "Hallo" $0 >> "NEWFILE"
#print "^M" $0 >> "NEWFILE"
#print "^L" $0 >> "NEWFILE"
#print "^[" $0 >> "NEWFILE"
}
else
{
print $0 >> "NEWFILE"
}
}'


In vi use in insertmode CTRL-v to insert keycodes or esc-codes. It takes effect for one character. Use CTRL-v again for the next character.
for example:
CTRL-v RETURN gets an ^M. In vi you see two charakters, but it is only one charakter (DEZ 13) Carrige Return.

Use CTRL-v CTRL-L and you get a ^L ( Form-Feed to a printer )
Use CTRL-v ESC and you get a ^[ ( ESC-character )

Greetings from Germany
Peter F.