gencat - Linux

Overview

Gencat is a powerful utility for concatenating files, combining multiple text files into a single output. It is primarily used to merge separate text sources into a larger, comprehensive document or dataset.

Syntax

gencat [-h] [-n] [-s SEP] [-d DELIM] <files>...

Options/Flags

  • -h, --help: Display help and usage information.
  • -n, --number-lines: Prefix each output line with its corresponding line number.
  • -s, --separator=SEP: Specify the separator to be placed between file contents (default: newline).
  • -d, --delimiter=DELIM: Separate files in the output using the specified delimiter (default: empty string).

Examples

  • Merge two files, file1.txt and file2.txt, with a colon as a separator:
gencat -s ":" file1.txt file2.txt
  • Concatenate multiple files with line numbers:
gencat -n file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt
  • Combine files with a custom delimiter:
gencat -d "===" file1.txt file2.txt

Common Issues

  • Ensure input files exist and are readable.
  • Incorrectly specified delimiter or separator may result in unexpected output.
  • Large file concatenation can potentially slow down the system.

Integration

Gencat can be used in combination with other commands for advanced tasks:

  • Pipe output into another command for further processing:
gencat file1.txt file2.txt | sort
  • Use scripts to automate file concatenation:
#!/bin/bash
for file in *.txt; do
  gencat -n $file >> output.txt
done

Related Commands

  • cat: Concatenate files without additional features.
  • more: Display file contents in a paginated format.
  • uniq: Remove duplicate lines from a file.