Merge multiple lines into one line using shell script

Question

I have a text file like inputfolder/abc.txt

Input (Below is just an example - the actual file will have many lines which will vary everytime):

abcdefgh~

asdfghjkliuy~

qwertyuiopasdfgh~

..........

Every line ends with '~' and I would like to merge all the lines into one

Desired output:

abcdefgh~asdfghjkliuy~qwertyuiopasdfgh~...............

How can I merge all the lines into one line using shell script? (I don't want to add any extra character)

Once all the lines are merged, the file should be moved to another folder.
Example: OutputFolder/abc.txt

Welcome to SO, the question is duplicate, you could find your answer at: "stackoverflow.com/questions/15580144/…" or "stackoverflow.com/questions/9605232/…". — Victor Lee
– Victor Lee, Commented Jun 23, 2021 at 1:35

Sven Eberth · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-23 12:50:19Z

1

You can solve this with tr and the delete parameter (delete the new line characters).

$ cat inputfolder/abc.txt 
abcdefgh~

asdfghjkliuy~

qwertyuiopasdfgh~

..........
$ cat inputfolder/abc.txt | tr -d "\r\n" > outputFolder/abc.txt
$ cat outputFolder/abc.txt 
abcdefgh~asdfghjkliuy~qwertyuiopasdfgh~..........

Or with sed:

$ sed -z "s/\n//g" inputfolder/abc.txt > outputFolder/abc.txt

edited Jun 23, 2021 at 12:50

answered Jun 22, 2021 at 23:09

Sven Eberth

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4 Comments

Alex Over a year ago

Hello Sven and Thanks for your help. I tried executing with tr command but got errored out saying 'tr: command not found'. Is there any other command that I can use instead of 'tr' ?

Alex Over a year ago

Sven, I tried using sed command and it worked but I have one concern. The command that I am using is --------------- sed ':a; N; $!ba; s/\n//g' input.txt > output.txt ----------- It is merging everything in line 1 but it is also adding one extra blank newline - a space in line 2 (line 2) and I don't want that. Am I missing something here? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Sven Eberth Over a year ago

Hmm. I don't know why tr is not available, but maybe you can check the problem and fix it. Is your PATH correct (See stackoverflow.com/questions/51920182/…)? Are you on Ubuntu (See askubuntu.com/questions/1113047/tr-command-not-found)?

Sven Eberth Over a year ago

tbh, I'm not a sed expert, but I've added a command to my answer which worked for me without a final newline.

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