Recipe 7.16 Modifying a File in Place with the -i Switch

7.16.1 Problem

You need to modify a file in place from the command line, and you're too lazy^[5] for the file manipulation of Recipe 7.15.

^[5] Lazy-as-virtue, not lazy-as-sin.

7.16.2 Solution

Use the -i and -p switches to Perl. Write your program on the command line:

% perl -i.orig -p -e 'FILTER COMMAND' file1 file2 file3 ...

or use the switches in programs:

#!/usr/bin/perl -i.orig -p
# filter commands go here

7.16.3 Discussion

The -i command-line switch modifies each file in place. It creates a temporary file as in the previous recipe, but Perl takes care of the tedious file manipulation for you. Use it with -p (explained in Recipe 7.14) to turn:

while (<>) {
    if ($ARGV ne $oldargv) {           # are we at the next file?
        rename($ARGV, $ARGV . ".orig");
        open(ARGVOUT, ">", $ARGV);     # plus error check
        select(ARGVOUT);
        $oldargv = $ARGV;
    }
    s/DATE/localtime/e;
}
continue{
    print;
}
select (STDOUT);                      # restore default output

into:

% perl -pi.orig -e 's/DATE/localtime/e'

The -i switch takes care of making a backup (say -i instead of -i.orig to discard the original file contents instead of backing them up), and -p makes Perl loop over filenames given on the command line (or STDIN if no files were given).

The preceding one-liner would turn a file containing the following:

Dear Sir/Madam/Ravenous Beast,
    As of DATE, our records show your account
is overdue.  Please settle by the end of the month.
Yours in cheerful usury,
    --A. Moneylender

into:

Dear Sir/Madam/Ravenous Beast,
    As of Sat Apr 25 12:28:33 1998, our records show your account
is overdue.  Please settle by the end of the month.
Yours in cheerful usury,
    --A. Moneylender

This switch makes in-place translators a lot easier to write and to read. For instance, this changes isolated instances of "hisvar" to "hervar" in all C, C++, and yacc files:

% perl -i.old -pe 's{\bhisvar\b}{hervar}g' *.[Cchy]

Turn on and off the -i behavior with the special variable $^I. Set @ARGV, and then use <> as you would with -i on the command line:

# set up to iterate over the *.c files in the current directory,
# editing in place and saving the old file with a .orig extension
local $^I   = ".orig";              # emulate  -i.orig
local @ARGV = glob("*.c");          # initialize list of files
while (<>) {
    if ($. =  = 1) {
        print "This line should appear at the top of each file\n";
    }
    s/\b(p)earl\b/${1}erl/ig;       # Correct typos, preserving case
    print;
} continue {close ARGV if eof}

Beware that creating a backup file under a particular name when that name already exists clobbers the version previously backed up.

7.16.4 See Also

perlrun(1), and the "Switches" section of Chapter 19 of Programming Perl; the $^I and $. variables in perlvar(1), and in Chapter 28 of Programming Perl; the .. operator in the "Range Operator" sections of perlop(1) and Chapter 3 of Programming Perl