Re: Inplace edit using XML::Twig

Why not just read in the file contents, truncate the file, and write processed file contents back out to the same file? No delete and rename needed.

-Mark

Comment on Re: Inplace edit using XML::Twig

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Re^2: Inplace edit using XML::Twig by gellyfish (Monsignor) on May 22, 2006 at 08:34 UTC
There are two reasons, firstly renaming is an atomic operation on all the systems that I am aware of so there is no risk of another application that can't be made to co-operate with this one getting a partially written file, secondly writing to a second file mitigates against the risk of the file being corrupted if the process is interrupted due to a program or OS crash or hardware failure for instance. For the most part I would omit the deletion stage to further reduce the risk of losing the file (although some OS might not support this). /J\	[reply]
Re^2: Inplace edit using XML::Twig by greenFox (Vicar) on May 22, 2006 at 08:07 UTC
Tim Bray makes some suggestions why you might not want to do that here, the caveat being of course how important is the data in question. -- Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. -Basho	[reply]