GNU bug report logs - #20796
[PATCH] Document behavior of sed -i -

Previous Next

Full log

Message #25 received at 20796-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
To: Stanislav Brabec <sbrabec <at> suse.com>
Cc: 20796-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#20796: [PATCH] Document behavior of sed -i -
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2015 09:11:10 -0700

On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 7:06 AM, Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net> wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 6:43 AM, Stanislav Brabec <sbrabec <at> suse.com> wrote:
>> Jim Meyering wrote:
>>
>>> However, rather than documenting this surprising behavior,
>>> I propose to remove the anomaly altogether with the attached patch.
>>> Does anyone see a reason to retain the behavior of treating "-"
>>> like "./-"?
>>>
>> The reason is simple: "sed -i" makes no sense on stdin, so the special
>> handling od "-" is disabled.
>>
>> We can either ignore "-i" for stdin, or report error:
>> "Editing standard input in place is an undefined operation."
>
> Ignoring a fundamental user-specified option like -i is not an option,
> so I chose the latter: to make this nonsensical usage evoke
> a diagnostic:
>
>   $ sed -i s/a/b/ -
>   sed: couldn't edit -: is a terminal
>
> I chose to use the same diagnostic that was already printed for
> a case like "sed -i s/a/b/ /dev/stdin".  It feels slightly better to
> include the name of the offending device.

I've pushed that change.

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.