Can a string be inserted at a specific line in a file from the CLI?

Question

The file has the content:

[Greet]

Hello
Hi
Hola

I want to add a string called Hey so that its position is after Hello:

[Greet]

Hello
Hey
Hi
Hola

Is there a way to do the above by using echo or other native linux tools from the command line?

Answer 1

Use sed.

Since the sed command to insert or append lines requires a line break it is easiest to place the sed command in a file and tell sed to execute that file.

Example: to insert Hey after (every) Hello, create the following file:

/Hello/a\
Hey

Then invoke sed:

sed -f appendheyafterhello.sed < sourcefile > resultfile

Here are more sed commands including how to insert a line before a pattern or at a specific line number.

Answer 2

Here's some perl solutions:

perl -p -i -e 'print "Hey\n" if /Hi/'  filename

or

perl -p -i -e 'print "Hey\n" if $. == 4'  filename

or

perl -n -i -e 'print; print "Hey\n" if /Hello/' filename