#!/bin/sh -e if test $# -eq 0 then echo "usage: $0 shellname [shellname ...]" exit 1 fi file=/etc/shells # I want this to be GUARANTEED to be on the same filesystem as $file tmpfile="${file}.tmp" set -o noclobber cleanup() { rm -f "$tmpfile" } trap cleanup EXIT if ! awk '{print}' "$file" > "$tmpfile" then cat 1>&2 <<EOF Either another instance of $0 is running, or it was previously interrupted. Please examine ${tmpfile} to see if it should be moved onto ${file}. EOF exit 1 fi for i do REALDIR="$(dirname "$(realpath -m "$i")")/$(basename "$i")" for j in "$i" "$REALDIR" do if ! grep -q "^${j}$" "$tmpfile" then echo "$j" >> "$tmpfile" fi done done chmod --reference="$file" "$tmpfile" chown --reference="$file" "$tmpfile" mv "$tmpfile" "$file" trap "" EXIT exit 0