2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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sponge
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. [Unix] A special case of a filter that reads its entire input before
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writing any output; the canonical example is a sort utility. Unlike most
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filters, a sponge can conveniently overwrite the input file with the output
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data stream. If a file system has versioning (as ITS did and VMS does now)
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the sponge/filter distinction loses its usefulness, because directing filter
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output would just write a new version. See also slurp.
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