merge-shp.sh

#!/bin/bash

MERGEDNAME="school_districts"
OUTDIR="/tmp"

for INFILE in *.shp; do 
  OUTFILE="${OUTDIR}/${MERGEDNAME}.shp"
  if test -e "$OUTFILE"; then
    echo "Merging $INFILE..."
    ogr2ogr -f "ESRI Shapefile" -update -append \
      "$OUTFILE" "$INFILE" -nln "$MERGEDNAME"
  else 
    echo "Creating $OUTFILE from $INFILE..."
    ogr2ogr -f "ESRI Shapefile" "$OUTFILE" "$INFILE"
  fi
done