STREAM EDITOR ADAPTOR: EDIT FILES IN-PLACE

A command-line tool for in-place stream editing of files with stream editors that don't know how to do that themselves.

$ inplace somefile sed -e 's/foo/bar/g'

This is similar to the GNU sponge(1) command, which is used like this:

$ sed -e 's/foo/bar/g' somefile | sponge somefile

The sponge usage is also supported:

$ sed -e 's/foo/bar/g' | inplace somefile

inplace can also be used with xargs. The example here is looking for json files with a field called foo, and setting that field to an empty list.

$ find -name '*.json' | xargs grep '"foo":' | xargs -i@ -- inplace @ jq 'foo|=[]'

The file edited in-place will be renamed into place unless the -w option is used, then the file will be re-written and will keep its identity.

$ inplace
Usage:  ./inplace [options] FILE [COMMAND [ARGUMENTS]]

        This program runs the COMMAND, if given, with stdin from FILE,
        and saves the output of COMMAND to FILE when the COMMAND
        completes.  Any ARGUMENTS are passed to the COMMAND.

        If a COMMAND is not given then the stdin will be saved to FILE.

        Options:
         -h,
         --help          -> this message
         -b SUFFIX,
         --backup SUFFIX -> keep a backup named $FILE$SUFFIX
         -w,
         --write         -> re-write FILE to keep file identity
                            the same, do not rename into place

        By default ./inplace renames the new FILE into place; use the
        -w option to have ./inplace rewrite the FILE..

BUILD INSTRUCTIONS

$ cc -o inplace inplace.c

There's no build system yet as this program is so simple.

TODO

• Add a build system (cc -o inplace inplace.c)
• Add manpage
• Add examples with jq and other stream editors