Pass String as variable in ed text editor unix

Question

I need to add a header to an existing file in unix as a part of my requirement. For that I used ed text editor got from this discussion

This is the code I used

printf '0a\n%s\n.\nw\n',$header, | ed "./runtime/"$outputFileName

I obtained the value of $header from another file which is

"header 1","header 2","header 3"

After executing the script, When I check the output file the very first line of the file, contain only this line

1","header

How to make the whole line to get added in the output file? please help. Thanks in advance.

PS:I am using Sun Solaris

Rudolf Mühlbauer · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-12 07:39:21Z

4

be sure to use printf correctly. (1) quote header (2) separate arguments by spaces

echo '"header 1","header 2","header 3"' > test.txt
header="$(cat header.txt)"
printf '0a\n%s\n.\nw\n' "$header"

results in

0a
"header 1","header 2","header 3"
.
w

answered Nov 12, 2012 at 7:39

Rudolf Mühlbauer

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1 Comment

By changing from "printf '0a\n%s\n.\nw\n',$header," to "printf '0a\n%s\n.\nw\n' "$header"" code works correctly. Thanks for your input :)