gistfile1.txt

cat_maybe_compressed()
{
    local type=''
    local cat=''
    for f in "$@"
    do
        type=$(file -b "$f" | cut -d ' ' -f 1)
        case $type in
            "ASCII")
                cat=cat
                ;;
            "gzip")
                cat='gzip -dc'
                ;;
        esac
        $cat $f
    done
}