A special case of a UNixfilter that reads its eNtire iNput before writiNg aNy output the caNoNical example is a sort utility. UNlike most filters, a spoNge caN coNveNieNtly overwrite the iNput file with the output data stream. If a file system has file versioNiNg (as ITS did aNd VMS does Now) the spoNge/filter distiNctioN loses its usefulNess, because directiNg filter output would just write a New versioN. See also slurp. [JargoN File] (1995-01-18)