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    Note that sed -i does not actually modify the file in place - it creates a temporary file and renames it on exiting. So you won't be able to do something like tail -f ... on the original file and see the output using sed -i ... while the pipeline is running Commented Mar 14, 2018 at 10:24
  • @AndrewHenle: Yes, since the size may be increased or shrinked, and since that's probably the case for most sed invocations, and you can't even - afaik - write to the same location on SSDs it's only a pseudo 'in place' operation. As a non native english speaker, may I ask for a brief expression, which isn't so likely misinterpreted? Just -i creates a new file of same name or is there something more compact? I guess I like in place, because it explains the i. The gnu-sed manpage calls it in place too and the long flag is --in-place. Commented Mar 14, 2018 at 10:30