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Re: GNU Awk - inplace editing

From Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com>
Newsgroups comp.lang.awk
Subject Re: GNU Awk - inplace editing
Date 2025-05-23 08:58 +0000
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <20250523015528.637@kylheku.com> (permalink)
References <100p11m$3uh3m$1@dont-email.me> <100pb7d$3kkjb$1@news.xmission.com>

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On 2025-05-23, Kenny McCormack <gazelle@shell.xmission.com> wrote:
> In article <100p11m$3uh3m$1@dont-email.me>,
> Janis Papanagnou  <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>In GNU Awk I was looking for the in-place option (similar to sed -i).
>>I thought there once was some _simple_ option usable from the command
>>line. (Or am I misremembering?)
>>
>>The manual now suggests to use a GNU Awk "inplace" _Extension_ for that
>>  gawk -i inplace ...
>>and
>>  gawk -i inplace -v inplace::suffix=.bak ...
>>respectively.
>>
>>That's not exactly as simple to use as, say,
>>  gawk -i ...
>>and
>>  gawk -i.bak
>>so I suppose there's a reason for the added complexity in the handling.
>>
>>Does anyone know that reason or remember a rationale? - I don't recall
>>any discussions about that...
>
> I've explained this a few times over the years (in this newsgroup).
>
> There was never a "-i" option in Gawk that meant "inplace" (and there never
> will be).
>
> The key to understanding this is to understand that (in Gawk), the "i" in
> "-i" does not stand for "inplace".  It stands for "include".
>
> Once you understand that, all becomes clear.

Sure, but, interestingly, just like Janis, I also seem to have a false,
memory of there having been some other inplace mechanism that was
replaced by the -i inplace include (not necessarily a -i option). There
is no evidence of any such in the available materials, though.

We might have both been duped by something unclear someone said once,
(perhaps here)?

-- 
TXR Programming Language: http://nongnu.org/txr
Cygnal: Cygwin Native Application Library: http://kylheku.com/cygnal
Mastodon: @Kazinator@mstdn.ca

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Thread

GNU Awk - inplace editing Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-05-23 07:28 +0200
  Re: GNU Awk - inplace editing Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2025-05-23 06:02 +0000
  Re: GNU Awk - inplace editing gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2025-05-23 08:22 +0000
    Re: GNU Awk - inplace editing Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2025-05-23 08:58 +0000
      Re: GNU Awk - inplace editing Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-05-23 16:08 +0200
  Re: GNU Awk - inplace editing mack@the-knife.org (Mack The Knife) - 2025-05-25 04:00 +0000
  Re: GNU Awk - inplace editing Ed Morton <mortonspam@gmail.com> - 2025-05-25 15:27 -0500
    Re: GNU Awk - inplace editing Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> - 2025-05-26 02:11 +0200

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