[bug-cppi] Re: [PATCH] Add new option --in-place

[Jim Meyering]

Hi Giuseppe,

Thanks for the heads-up about your post.

  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-cppi/2010-03/msg00006.html

You seem to have sent that before I subscribed to the list I'd created.
Sorry I missed it:

Quick comments:

I'm not sure this is worth doing, but if it is you'll have
to make a few changes:

  - detect any write failure (i.e, don't omit checks for close failure)
  - the replacement must be atomic, which means the temporary
      file must be on the same file system as the destination (usually
      in the same directory), and the final operation is a rename
      syscall.
  - upon interrupt, the temporary file must be removed
  - also report any unlink failure
  - handle fclose failure, too -- use gnulib's close_stream function

I hesitated to enumerate that list (may well be incomplete),
because I don't want to give the impression that once you fix
everything it will be acceptable.

I'm really doubtful that adding the required complexity
is worthwhile.  Besides, isn't there a simple utility
program that can turn any filter program into an
operate-on-target-file-in-place utility?