[linux] Save modifications in place with awk

I am learning awk and I would like to know if there is an option to write changes to file, similar to sed where I would use -i option to save modifications to a file.

I do understand that I could use redirection to write changes. However is there an option in awk to do that?

In case you want an awk-only solution without creating a temporary file and usable with version!=(gawk 4.1.0):

awk '{a[b++]=$0} END {for(c=0;c<=b;c++)print a[c]>ARGV[1]}' file

Unless you have GNU awk 4.1.0 or later...

You won't have such an option as sed's -i option so instead do:

$ awk '{print $0}' file > tmp && mv tmp file

Note: the -i is not magic, it is also creating a temporary file sed just handles it for you.

As of GNU awk 4.1.0...

GNU awk added this functionality in version 4.1.0 (released 10/05/2013). It is not as straight forwards as just giving the -i option as described in the released notes:

The new -i option (from xgawk) is used for loading awk library files. This differs from -f in that the first non-option argument is treated as a script.

You need to use the bundled inplace.awk include file to invoke the extension properly like so:

$ cat file
123 abc
456 def
789 hij

$ gawk -i inplace '{print $1}' file

$ cat file
123
456
789

The variable INPLACE_SUFFIX can be used to specify the extension for a backup file:

$ gawk -i inplace -v INPLACE_SUFFIX=.bak '{print $1}' file

$ cat file
123
456
789

$ cat file.bak
123 abc
456 def
789 hij

I am happy this feature has been added but to me, the implementation isn't very awkish as the power comes from the conciseness of the language and -i inplace is 8 characters too long i.m.o.

Here is a link to the manual for the official word.

@sudo_O has the right answer.

This can't work:

someprocess < file > file

The shell performs the redirections before handing control over to someprocess (redirections). The > redirection will truncate the file to zero size (redirecting output). Therefore, by the time someprocess gets launched and wants to read from the file, there is no data for it to read.

Using tee

 awk '{awk code}' file | tee file

the tee command take place and executed after the awk command is finished due to the |.

An alternative is to use sponge:

awk '{print $0}' your_file | sponge your_file

Where you replace '{print $0}' by your awk script and your_file by the name of the file you want to edit in place.

sponge absorbs entirely the input before saving it to the file.

just a little hack that works

echo "$(awk '{awk code}' file)" > file

following won't work

echo $(awk '{awk code}' file) > file

this should work

echo "$(awk '{awk code}' file)" > file