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Thread: "vi"-ing a constantly updated file
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Old 04-25-2007
Shell_Life's Avatar
Shell_Life Shell_Life is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Bahia, Brazil
Posts: 695
Percy,
Here is one possible solution:
1) Rename the "work_file" to a "tmp_file" and immediately create a
new "work_file" so that new records can continue to be added to it.

Code:
mv  work_file  tmp_file
touch  work_file

2) "vi" the "tmp_file" and make all changes you want.

2.a) After you are finished with your changes on the "tmp_file",
do not quit yet.

2.b) Go to the end of the "tmp_file" and in the command line type:

Code:
:r work_file

This will read the "work_file" entirely and place it after the last line
of "tmp_file".

2.c) Write and quit the "tmp_file".
As you say the file is very large, if you try to save the work area
as "work_file", it may take a long time and use a lot of memory
and disk space.

3) Immediately rename "tmp_file" back to "work_file".

Code:
mv  tmp_file  work_file

See if this could work for you.