INPLACE(3am) GNU Awk Extension Modules INPLACE(3am)
NAME
inplace - emulate sed/perl/ruby in-place editing
SYNOPSIS
gawk -i inplace ...
DESCRIPTION
The inplace extension adds two functions named inplace_begin() and
inplace_end(). These functions are meant to be invoked from the
inplace.awk wrapper which is installed when gawk is.
By default, each named file on the command line is replaced with a new
file of the same name whose contents are the results of running the AWK
program. Since a new file is created, if the file is a link (whether
hard or symbolic), the link will be broken. This behavior is
consistent with GNU sed which also breaks links when the -i or
--in-place flag is used. If the user supplies an AWK variable named
inplace::suffix in a BEGIN rule or on the command line, then the
inplace extension concatenates that suffix onto the original filename
and uses the result as a filename for renaming the original.
For backwards compatibility, the variable will also check
INPLACE_SUFFIX (in the awk namespace) for the suffix to use if
inplace::suffix is not set.
One can disable inplace editing selectively by placing
inplace::enable=0 on the command line prior to files that should be
processed normally. One can reenable inplace editing by placing
inplace::enable=1 prior to files that should be subject to inplace
editing.
BUGS
While the extension does attempt to preserve ownership and permissions,
it makes no attempt to copy the ACLs from the original file.
If the program dies prematurely, as might happen if an unhandled signal
is received, a temporary file may be left behind.
EXAMPLE
gawk -i inplace 'script' files ...
gawk -i inplace -f scriptfile files ...
SEE ALSO
GAWK: Effective AWK Programming, filefuncs(3), fnmatch(3),
fork(3), ordchr(3), readdir(3), readfile(3), revoutput(3),
rwarray(3).
AUTHOR
Andrew Schorr, schorr@telemetry-investments.com.
COPYING PERMISSIONS
Copyright (C) 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2024, Free Software
Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual page provided the copyright notice and this permission notice
are preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
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Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual page into another language, under the above conditions for
modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in
a translation approved by the Foundation.
Free Software Foundation Feb 29 2024 INPLACE(3am)
gawk 5.3.1 - Generated Wed Oct 2 18:39:54 CDT 2024