For those who edit with emacs, here are a couple of functions that I find useful. The first one runs perl on the current region, replacing it with the results of the command. The second does the same for the current buffer.

Both functions attempt to preserve the current locations of point and mark as best they can. In the case of updating the entire buffer, the point and mark maintain the same line & column number, if possible.

I'm not an elisp guru; suggestions and improvements welcome!

Inspired by a one-liner in TPJ by Dominus. 

; run perl on the current region, updating the region
(defun perl-replace-region (start end)     
  "Apply perl command to region"
  (interactive "r")
  (shell-command-on-region start end 
                           (read-from-minibuffer "Replace region comma
+nd: " '("perl -pe \"\"" . 11 ))
                           t
                           t
                           )
  (exchange-point-and-mark)
  )

; run perl on the current buffer, updating the buffer
(defun perl-replace-buffer ()    
  "Apply perl command to buffer"
  (interactive)
  (let ((ptline (count-lines (point-min) (point)))
        (ptcol (current-column))
        (markline 0)
        (markcol  0)
        (command (read-from-minibuffer "Replace buffer command: " '("p
+erl -pe \"\"" . 11 ))))
    (exchange-point-and-mark)
    (setq markline (count-lines (point-min) (point)))
    (setq markcol  (current-column))
    (mark-whole-buffer)
    (let ((new-start (region-beginning))
          (new-end   (region-end)))
      (shell-command-on-region  new-start new-end command t t )
      )
    (goto-line markline)
    (move-to-column markcol)
    (exchange-point-and-mark)
    (goto-line ptline)
    (move-to-column ptcol)
    )
  )

[download]

laughingboy

In reply to Update the current region/buffer in Emacs via Perl by laughingboy

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.