Appending text to a file in a Fixlet/Task/Action

Content Authoring
1

(imported topic written by BenKus)

We have received a couple requests for information on how to append a line of text to a file in a custom Fixlet/Task/Action…

Here is example actionscript that appends a line to the “hosts” file on Windows:

waithidden cmd.exe /C echo {“10.10.10.10 test.domain.com%0d%0a”} >> {(pathname of system folder as string & “\drivers\etc\hosts”)}

I didn’t test this so make sure you try it out before using it (and please post if you find any issues)…

Ben

2

(imported comment written by choro)

If you need to add a carriage return:

echo. >> “path to dest”

Also, if you need to find and replace F.A.R.T. is a great dos program.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=44531

We are either Kings or Pawns, of men

3

(imported comment written by BenKus)

Good point… Here is how to add a line with a carriage return (which is percent encoded as “%0d%0a”):

waithidden cmd.exe /C echo “10.10.10.10 test.domain.com%0d%0a” >> {(pathname of system folder as string & “\drivers\etc\hosts”)}

Ben

4

(imported comment written by SystemAdmin)

Ben Kus

Good point… Here is how to add a line with a carriage return (which is percent encoded as “%0d%0a”):

waithidden cmd.exe /C echo “10.10.10.10 test.domain.com%0d%0a” >> {(pathname of system folder as string & “\drivers\etc\hosts”)}

Hey Ben … just a quick FYI, we needed to do the same thing and this failed gloriously. :slight_smile: Ended up using the following

waithidden cmd.exe /C echo. #>> hosts
waithidden cmd.exe /C echo.1.2.3.4 server1.name>> hosts
waithidden cmd.exe /C echo.1.2.3.5 server2.name>> hosts
…

The first line there was just to make sure I was on a new line, and no spaces after “echo.” and before “>>” means no spaces in the hosts file either. The quotes in yours showed up in the hosts file as did the percent encodes. :frowning:

  • John
5

(imported comment written by BenKus)

Oops… I made a mistake and didn’t put {} around the expression… It should be something like:

waithidden cmd.exe /C echo {“10.10.10.10 test.domain.com%0d%0a”} >> {(pathname of system folder as string & “\drivers\etc\hosts”)}

I fixed it in the first post too…

Thanks,

Ben

6

(imported comment written by Shembop91)

Is there a way to do this on a Macintosh?

I want to append text to a file on a Macintosh, but have not found a way listed so far.

7

(imported comment written by jessewk)

Hi Shembop,

Yes. >> is a universal operator for appending output to a file on unix OSes and it was also adopted by Windows. You can find lots of examples of running shell scripts in our existing Mac content.

Jesse

8

(imported comment written by fywu91)

Hi Ben,

This did not work for me. No file was created, unless I remove the %0d%0a. What’s wrong?

waithidden cmd.exe /C echo {“10.10.10.10 test.domain.com%0d%0a”} > c:\temp\test.txt

In a relevance query, I found this:

Q: “Hello %01 %02 %03 %04 %05 %06 %07 %08 %09 %0A %0B %0C %0D %0E %0F %20 %21 %22 %23 %24 %25 %26 %27 %28 %29”

A: Hello %01 %02 %03 %04 %05 %06 %07 %08 %09 %0a %0b %0c %0d %0e %0f ! " # $ %25 & ’ ( )

T: 0.028 ms