sed-in-place

An advisory by default: it explains, and blocks nothing, on sed -i, whose two spellings destroy each other's work across platforms.

What it catches

sed -i, whose two spellings destroy each other's work across platforms.

Why

sed -i is not portable and the two spellings destroy each other's work. GNU reads sed -i 's/x/y/' f as an edit; BSD and macOS read that same script as the BACKUP SUFFIX and take the next argument as the script. sed -i '' ... is the macOS spelling and makes GNU edit nothing. So a command that works here mangles the file on the next machine, by WRITING, before anyone reads a diff. An editor tool reads the file first and reports what it changed, and for a whole-tree rename magus refs <symbol> --occurrences gives column-precise sites a pattern cannot. Reading with sed is untouched.

Default and override

By default this rule takes the decision advise. A workspace sets it by name, in its root magusfile, to deny, advise or off:

magus\guard.builtins({"sed-in-place": "deny"})

A loosening takes effect once it is committed; a tightening applies at once.

Seeing it

A verdict names its rule in brackets, which is how you got here:

advise [sed-in-place]: ...

magus describe rule sed-in-place prints the same entry at a terminal, and magus describe rules lists every rule this workspace enforces.

See also

• All rules - what this workspace enforces, deny first
• The guard - how a verdict is reached and wired
• Setting a built-in rule - how a workspace changes this default