A special case of a Unix filter 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)

In addition suitable contents:
[ = ] [ ad ] [ al ] [ am ] [ an ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ arg ] [ as ] [ at ] [ au ] [ b ] [ be ] [ ca ] [ canonical ] [ case ] [ ch ] [ ci ] [ co ] [ con ] [ data ] [ do ] [ du ] [ ec ] [ ee ] [ er ] [ es ] [ fi ] [ file ] [ file system ] [ filter ] [ fo ] [ for ] [ ge ] [ h ] [ hat ] [ hr ] [ id ] [ ie ] [ il ] [ in ] [ inc ] [ input ] [ io ] [ ir ] [ is ] [ IT ] [ it ] [ ITS ] [ J ] [ Jargon File ] [ ke ] [ ld ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ lose ] [ ls ] [ lt ] [ lu ] [ ly ] [ M ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ module ] [ mp ] [ na ] [ nc ] [ ne ] [ ng ] [ ni ] [ nl ] [ no ] [ np ] [ output ] [ pe ] [ ph ] [ pl ] [ query ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ rw ] [ S ] [ se ] [ si ] [ sl ] [ slurp ] [ so ] [ sort ] [ spec ] [ st ] [ stream ] [ sy ] [ system ] [ T ] [ th ] [ tp ] [ tr ] [ TS ] [ us ] [ V ] [ ve ] [ version ] [ VM ] [ VMS ] [ write ]