Clarify that in-place editing actually creates a new file.

If the in-place editing dies, the original is gone.
 Another implication of this is that hard links on UNIX
 won't work properly, since a new inode will be generated -
 I think that's a little too specific to spell out in the docs
 though.

diff --git a/pod/perlrun.pod b/pod/perlrun.pod
index 9ed678c..2038c3c 100644 (file)
--- a/pod/perlrun.pod
+++ b/pod/perlrun.pod
@@ -506,8 +506,10 @@ default for print() statements.  The extension, if supplied, is used to
 modify the name of the old file to make a backup copy, following these
 rules:
 
-If no extension is supplied, no backup is made and the current file is
-overwritten.
+If no extension is supplied, and your system supports it, the original
+I<file> is kept open without a name while the output is redirected to
+a new file with the original I<filename>.  When perl exits, cleanly or not,
+the original I<file> is unlinked.
 
 If the extension doesn't contain a C<*>, then it is appended to the
 end of the current filename as a suffix.  If the extension does