[j41r@work perl]$ rm alpha/foo.bak [j41r@work perl]$ stat -c%n:$'\t'%i alpha/foo* alpha/foo: 9353128 [j41r@work perl]$ perl -i.bak -pe 1 alpha/foo [j41r@work perl]$ stat -c%n:$'\t'%i alpha/foo* alpha/foo: 9353126 alpha/foo.bak: 9353128 [j41r@work perl]$ rm alpha/foo.bak [j41r@work perl]$ stat -c%n:$'\t'%i alpha/foo* alpha/foo: 9353126