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From: whenry@lindy.stanford.edu (homo obsolescensis)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Novice Question: How is -e supposed to work?
Message-ID: <1990Aug16.070010.26529@morrow.stanford.edu>
Date: 16 Aug 90 07:00:10 GMT
Sender: news@morrow.stanford.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: Stanford University Libraries
Lines: 28


I a perl tyro and I am having trouble using the -e switch.  the man
pages give the following example: (lets call this file "go")

	#!/usr/bin/perl -pi.bak
	s/foo/bar/;

and intimate that the result of running go  on file bas will be a
changed file bas.

however, when I try any of the following, the results are the same as
if only the -p switch were set.  that is, the changes are printed to
the screen only, not to the original file.

	go bas
	go <bas

and of course

	go bas >bas		or
	go <bas >bas
just clobber bas

Do I misinterpret what is supposed to be happening?
This happens in patch level 18 on a sun.

Thanks, 
Walter Henry