On 26/05/2006, at 10:43 PM, Robert Thorsby wrote:
On 2006.05.26 22:34 Sam Lawrance wrote:
The argument for "-i" is optional; if supplied sed provides a
backup; if not supplied sed amends the input file. See "man sed"
That is ridiculous. Unless you know in advance what the argument
will be, it is not possible to detect that it has not been supplied.
Look, I don't know whether it is ridiculous or not. I use "sed -i"
simpliciter often from the command line to wipe all text from a file:
sed -i 'd' input.file
I apologise, that wasn't called for. I think I see what version you
are using - it seems that you can't have a space between -i and its
argument. It's behaviour I have not seen before (SUS suggests that
it is non-portable, too :).
It works for me; YMMV. I do, however, suggest you RTFM. The man
page is quite clear
I did. It is. My man page is not your man page ;-)
Anyhow, my main point is that any form of '-i' is a nonstandard
extension.
In the context of the request I did not think that portability was
an issue. If it were, then clearly something more than my Q&D
command one-liner might be desirable.
Portability is never an issue. Until you try to run your stuff on
some other platform. Take it from someone who likes to patch the
linuxisms out of software for fun.
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