QMAKE_POST_LINK action with sed: in file replacement?

[Bart_Vandewoestyne]

I have the following QMAKE_POST_LINK action to replace some text in a certain configuration file:

QMAKE_POST_LINK += $$QMAKE_QMAKE -install sed -e 's/foo/bar/g' $$shell_path($${DST_FILE})$$escape_expand(\n\t)

The problem however is, that this does not change the file in place. sed simply spits the new file to standard output.
I tried using the -i option, but qmake's simple implementation of sed does not support that in my version of Qt (5.15.1).

I do want to keep this QMAKE_POST_LINK as portable as possible, and do want to stick with qmake's sed implementation because I don't want my users to have to install sed for this.

I also tried redirecting to an output file with

QMAKE_POST_LINK += $$QMAKE_QMAKE -install sed -e 's/foo/bar/g' $$shell_path($${DST_FILE}) > $$shell_path($${DST_FILE})$$escape_expand(\n\t)

but that results in an empty file.

Any suggestions on how to make this text replacement in place in a portable way?

[mchinand]

Does it have to be in place? I would do this in two steps. First, use sed to create your destination path and assign it to a variable (Use system). Then, use that variable in the call to qmake -install.

[Bart_Vandewoestyne]

Since qmake's sed apparently doesn't support in-file replacements, I redirected the output of the sed -e command to a .tmp file, and then renamed that .tmp file using $$QMAKE_MOVE. Works fair enough :-)