add space 5 times at the beginning of each line in a text file

I am looking for a command line or bash script that would add space 5 times before the beginning of each line in a file.

for example:

abc

after adding spaces 5 times

      abc

Answers:

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Method 1

With GNU sed:

sed -i -e 's/^/     /' <file>

will replace the start of each line with 5 spaces. The -i modifies the file in place, -e gives some code for sed to execute. s tells sed to do a subsitution, ^ matches the start of the line, then the part between the second two / characters is what will replace the part matched in the beginning, i.e., the start of the line in this example.

Method 2

You can use sed

sed 's_^_     _' tmpin > tmpout

Or awk

awk '{print "     " $0}' tmpin > tmpout

Or paste (Thanks cuonglm)

:| paste -d' ' - - - - - file

Watch out. These can be addictive. You can solve many simple problems, but the time will come where you need to upgrade to a full scripting language.

Edit: Sed script simplified based on Eric Renouf’s answer.

Method 3

You can use many standard tools, example with paste:

:| paste -d' ' - - - - - file

or shorter with awk:

awk '{$1="     "$1}1' file

or more portable with perl:

perl -pe '$_=" "x5 .$_' file

Method 4

You can use Vim in Ex mode:

ex -sc '%s/^/     /|x' file

1. % select all lines
2. s substitute
3. x save and close

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0