This allows you to add a prefix to the backup file, instead of (or in
addition to) a suffix:
- $ perl -pi 'orig_*' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # backup to 'orig_fileA'
+ $ perl -pi'orig_*' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # backup to 'orig_fileA'
Or even to place backup copies of the original files into another
directory (provided the directory already exists):
- $ perl -pi 'old/*.orig' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # backup to 'old/fileA.orig'
+ $ perl -pi'old/*.orig' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # backup to 'old/fileA.orig'
These sets of one-liners are equivalent:
$ perl -pi -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # overwrite current file
- $ perl -pi '*' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # overwrite current file
+ $ perl -pi'*' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # overwrite current file
- $ perl -pi '.orig' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # backup to 'fileA.orig'
- $ perl -pi '*.orig' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # backup to 'fileA.orig'
+ $ perl -pi'.orig' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # backup to 'fileA.orig'
+ $ perl -pi'*.orig' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # backup to 'fileA.orig'
From the shell, saying