Can you mail merge via tezt

You're looking to merge data from a text file into a template using a text-based tool!

Yes, you can achieve mail merging using a text-based tool like tex or sed. Here are a few examples:

Using tex

You can use the tex command to merge data from a text file into a template. For example, let's say you have a template file template.txt with placeholders like {name} and {email}, and a data file data.txt with the actual values:

$ tex -e 's/{name}/$(cat data.txt | grep name | cut -d: -f2)/' template.txt > output.txt

This command uses tex to search and replace the placeholders in template.txt with the corresponding values from data.txt. The grep and cut commands are used to extract the values from data.txt.

Using sed

You can also use sed to achieve the same result:

$ sed -e 's/{name}/$(sed -n '/name/p' data.txt | cut -d: -f2)/' template.txt > output.txt

This command uses sed to search and replace the placeholders in template.txt with the corresponding values from data.txt. The inner sed command extracts the value from data.txt, and the outer sed command replaces the placeholder.

Using awk

Another option is to use awk to merge the data:

$ awk -v template=template.txt -v data=data.txt '{print $0}' template.txt | awk -v OFS="" '{gsub(/{name}/, $(NR==1? $2 : "")); gsub(/{email}/, $(NR==1? $3 : "")); print}' > output.txt

This command uses awk to read the template file and replace the placeholders with the corresponding values from the data file. The NR variable is used to keep track of the current line number, and the gsub function is used to replace the placeholders.

These are just a few examples of how you can achieve mail merging using text-based tools. The specific command will depend on the format of your template and data files, as well as your personal preference for the tool you use.