As far as I understand it, in Perl you first need to create a new file with the desired output then rename that file to the original name. So in my case that would be with the rename function ... If there is a better way to get what I want, I'm open to suggestion.

You are on the right track. For some history and solutions to this fascinating and tricky problem see this old node Re-runnably editing a file in place, especially its "See Also" section.

In reply to Re^3: While loop not printing anything after using grep by eyepopslikeamosquito
in thread While loop not printing anything after using grep by skjeiu

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