Insert header comment into every source file?

[DaveB]

I'd do this:

for file in *.c *.h
do
cat copyright.txt $file > mytemp
mv mytemp $file
done

EDIT: I'd say "cat copyright.txt code.c > code.c" is risky, I've never heard of cat operating on copies of files. I could be wrong, but I've been around Unix a long time.

Your version is the safe way, I did say that cat copyright.txt code.c > code.c *might* work and that I was rusty. I'd test it first if I were you

From memory it's an "undocumented feature" of cat that redirecting the output to one of the original files will overwrite the contents of that file without warning, rather than barfing with an error message from trying to write to an open file.

[Platypus]

I'd do this:

for file in *.c *.h
do
cat copyright.txt $file > mytemp
mv mytemp $file
done

EDIT: I'd say "cat copyright.txt code.c > code.c" is risky, I've never heard of cat operating on copies of files. I could be wrong, but I've been around Unix a long time.

[DaveB]

Is there a tool I can use to insert a comment into every source file in one go... e.g a copyright notice or whatever?

Sorry for all the threads today gearing up to a new project.

cat copyright.txt code.c > code2.c

I'm a bit rusty on Unix but

cat copyright.txt code.c > code.c

might also work since cat operates on copies of the original files, not the files themselves. So the output could be sent back to one of the original files.

EDIT :

Since you are working in a windows environment use type instead of cat. The second option may not work since I dont know how type treats the original data.

[BrowneIssue]

Slightly more obscure solutions than I was expecting

Huh? How is a single line o/s command obscure?

I suppose you could buy a macro programming language online, like WinBatch, and learn how to use it and use that, I suppose.

Or learn how to do it in Python and write something in that.

Or outsource it to Bob Shawadiwadi on Freelancers.net or whatever that site is called.

Or write a pre-compiler that parses the source for required text and inserts it if not present, then re-compile the system.

Reverse engineer the compiler to insert the text into the source.

Rename every source file to have "®d000hgCo" appended to the name.

Or use whatever programming language you are working with to write something.

Or, FFS, write a macro in Word to do it!

Get one of the admin staff to do it.

Get the most junior developer on the team to do it.

How many files are we talking about here? I could have copy 'n' pasted a copyright message in to 20 or 30 documents in the time it has taken me to write this.

[d000hg]

Slightly more obscure solutions than I was expecting It's easy enough to write one even, but it seems like an obvious utility that must be floating around... I don't suppose Visual Studio has a way to do this natively by any chance?

[OrangeHopper]

Every operating system should allow you to concat files.

[darmstadt]

I use a REXX edit macro

[BrowneIssue]

Didn't we used to do this in DOS?

COPY COPYRITE.TXT + C:\SYSTEM\SOURCE\*.SRC C:\SYSTEM\SOURCE2

[d000hg]

Is there a tool I can use to insert a comment into every source file in one go... e.g a copyright notice or whatever?

Sorry for all the threads today gearing up to a new project.