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From: Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.awk
Subject: Re: GNU Awk - inplace editing
Date: Fri, 23 May 2025 08:58:33 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 44
Message-ID: <20250523015528.637@kylheku.com>
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)?

-- 
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