topic Re: insert # in a file in Operating System - HP-UX

insert # in a file

rhansen — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:38:01 GMT

Hello,

I have a text file that has hundreds of line. I need to comment out the first 150 lines by adding a "#".

Can someone let me know how do it in one shot.

Thanks.

Re: insert # in a file

Rita C Workman — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:42:53 GMT

How about

cat | sed s'/.*/#&/' >>

Rita

Re: insert # in a file

Rita C Workman — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:52:38 GMT

oops sorry ignored the 150 lines..

how about...

sed -n '1,150p' | sed s'/.*/#&/' >>

/Rita

Re: insert # in a file

Sagar Sirdesai — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:59:04 GMT

sed '1,150s/^/#/' file > newfile

Re: insert # in a file

James R. Ferguson — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:26:07 GMT

Hi:

If you prefer 'sed', Sagar's solution is good.

IF you want to use Perl and update the file in-place while preserving a backup copy as ".old", you could do:

# perl -pi.old -e '1..150 and s/^/#/' file

The GNU 'sed' also offers in in-place file update. HP's 'sed' does not.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: insert # in a file

Steven Schweda — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:20:26 GMT

> [...] update the file in-place [...]

Of course, if you'd like to check the work
before replacing the original file, then
in-place may not be the ideal method to use.

Re: insert # in a file

Dennis Handly — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:24:58 GMT

>I need to comment out the first 150 lines by adding a "#".

If you are only doing it once, you can use vi, similar to Sagar's sed:
:1,150s/^/#/

Re: insert # in a file

Viktor Balogh — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:29:32 GMT

here is a solution with awk:

awk '{if (NR < 151) print "#"$0; else print $0}' filename

Re: insert # in a file

T. M. Louah — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:36:00 GMT

Great tips, thx

Re: insert # in a file

rhansen — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:44:11 GMT

Thanks for the replies.

Re: insert # in a file

Sagar Sirdesai — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:59:32 GMT

Hi rhansen,

I hope we deserve some for our answers.
We encourge you to assign points

Sagar