sponge
A special case of a Unix filter that reads its entire input before writing any
output; the canonical example is a sort utility. Unlike most filters, a sponge
can conveniently overwrite the input file with the output data stream. If a file
system has file versioning (as ITS did and VMS does now) the sponge/filter
distinction loses its usefulness, because directing filter output would just
write a new version.
See also slurp.
[Jargon File]
(1995-01-18)
Nearby terms:
SPML « spod « spoiler « sponge » spoo » spoof
» spoofing
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