That is roughtly what tilly's "perl -pi" solution does. And I would discourage rewriting the existing file without renaming, that way lies nasty race conditions. Best to write a new file and rename it into place after you are done (you still have a race condition if you have simultaneious writers, but are in good shape in the more common case of a single writer and any number of readers).

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")