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.TH inplace 1 "5 February 2005" "Edgeware tools"
.SH NAME
inplace \- update a file in-place
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B inplace
.I file
\&...
.B \-\-
.I program
.RI [ arguments ...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B inplace
program rewrites files in place using filters.  For each
.I file
it runs
.VS
.IR "program arguments " ...
.VE
with standard input redirected from
.I file
and redirecting standard output to
.IR file \c
.BR .new .
If all these programs are successful, then each
.I file
is copied to
.IB file .old
and each
.IB file .new
renamed to
.IR file ;
the
.IB file .old
files are then deleted.  If something went wrong, the
.IB file .new
files are all deleted and the original
.IR file s
are left unmodified.
.I program
exits successfully,
.B inplace
will rename the newly-written
.IB file .new
to simply
.I file
and exit zero; otherwise it deletes
.IB file .new
and exits the same as
.I program
did.
.SH BUGS
Doesn't exit correctly if subprogram was killed by a signal.  The update
isn't completely perfect but it's very good; it can leave debris lying
around if strange things happen during the renaming.
.SH AUTHOR
Mark Wooding <mdw@distorted.org.uk>