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
It works for me; YMMV. I do, however, suggest you RTFM. The man page is
quite clear
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.
Robert Thorsby
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