[PATCH v2 2/2] scripts/config: Use in-place editing (-i) in sed portably
From: Rong Zhang
Date: Tue Jul 21 2026 - 14:09:54 EST
The use of in-place editing was removed by commit 83e8b90e1d2c
("scripts/config: use sed's POSIX interface").
Before that, the script used bare `-i' to skip creating a backup file.
In fact, major sed implementations have supported `-i' for over a
decade. It's really doubtful if anyone would still build Linux on a Unix
system without it. The issue is more about how we use it:
FreeBSD and macOS disallow bare `-i'. To skip creating a backup, an
empty string ("zero-length extension") must be passed as a separate
argument following `-i'.
GNU and other BSDs accept bare `-i' to skip creating a backup, but
disallow passing a zero-length extension.
That being said, when thinking about it optimistically, using `-i' is
portable as long as a backup is created.
Use in-place editing (-i) in a portable manner by creating a backup file
with a .swp extension (the same name as the current temporary file). The
backup file will be deleted on exit.
A rough benchmark with ~1000 editions showed a 14.4% speedup (5.27s =>
4.51s, GNU sed). The FreeBSD sed showed a similar speedup.
Reviewed-by: Nicolas Schier <nsc@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Rong Zhang <i@xxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v2:
- Fix a typo in commit message (thanks Nicolas Schier)
- Do not delete .swp file when sed is not invoked, e.g., `--state'
- In my test, unnecessarily deleting .swp file makes `--state' 10%
slower due to the overhead of extra fork() and execve()
- Unnecessarily deleting .swp file may corrupt Vim even if no editing
command is passed
---
scripts/config | 31 +++++++++++++++++++------------
1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
diff --git a/scripts/config b/scripts/config
index 1f290372a4ce..7c083c860341 100755
--- a/scripts/config
+++ b/scripts/config
@@ -71,35 +71,34 @@ txt_append() {
local anchor="$1"
local insert="$2"
local infile="$3"
- local tmpfile="$infile.swp"
# sed append cmd: 'a\' + newline + text + newline
cmd="$(printf "a\\%b$insert" "\n")"
- sed -E -e "/$anchor/$cmd" "$infile" >"$tmpfile"
- # replace original file with the edited one
- mv "$tmpfile" "$infile"
+ # We don't really need a backup file, but in-place editing with backup
+ # skipped is not portable due to different implementations parsing
+ # arguments in incompatible manners.
+ # Create a backup file anyway to ensure portability. The file will be
+ # deleted on exit.
+ sed -E -i.swp -e "/$anchor/$cmd" "$infile"
+ SED_EDITED=1
}
txt_subst() {
local before="$1"
local after="$2"
local infile="$3"
- local tmpfile="$infile.swp"
- sed -E -e "s$SED_DELIM$before$SED_DELIM$after$SED_DELIM" "$infile" >"$tmpfile"
- # replace original file with the edited one
- mv "$tmpfile" "$infile"
+ sed -E -i.swp -e "s$SED_DELIM$before$SED_DELIM$after$SED_DELIM" "$infile"
+ SED_EDITED=1
}
txt_delete() {
local text="$1"
local infile="$2"
- local tmpfile="$infile.swp"
- sed -E -e "/$text/d" "$infile" >"$tmpfile"
- # replace original file with the edited one
- mv "$tmpfile" "$infile"
+ sed -E -i.swp -e "/$text/d" "$infile"
+ SED_EDITED=1
}
set_var() {
@@ -122,6 +121,14 @@ undef_var() {
txt_delete "^($name=|# $name is not set)" "$FN"
}
+SED_EDITED=0
+on_exit() {
+ if [ "$SED_EDITED" -ge 1 ]; then
+ rm -f "$FN.swp"
+ fi
+}
+trap on_exit EXIT
+
FN=.config
CMDS=()
while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
--
2.53.0