generate.sh

#!/bin/bash

set -ex

# assign variables from command line args

output_dir=$2
input_path=$1

# check if directory exists (from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59838/check-if-a-directory-exists-in-a-shell-script)
if [ ! -d "$output_dir" ]; then
  mkdir -p "$output_dir"
fi

if [ ! "${input_path: -1}" = "/" ]; then
	input_path="$input_path/"
fi

# for each text file in input directory
for file in "$input_path"*.txt
do
	file="$file"

	title=$(head -n 1 "$file")
	body=$(tail -n +3 "$file")

	filename=$(basename "$file") # strip file name of directory and extension
	filename="${filename%.*}"

	#create the output file
	touch "$output_dir/$filename.html"
	cat template.html >> "$output_dir/$filename.html"

	#now, make substitutions into file (syntax for sed taken from https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/159367/using-sed-to-find-and-replace
	sed -i -e "s~{{title}}~$title~g" "$output_dir/$filename.html"
	sed -i -e "s~{{body}}~$body~g" "$output_dir/$filename.html"
done