Round Bobbin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Round Bobbin is a term used in computing to describe a process that sends its output back to the input source ("Round Bobbin" style). It was derived from the wrap around style of a Bobbin, which is another word for a "Cotton Reel".
A typical "Round Bobbin" uses the syntax:
command <test.fil >test.fil
or
cat test.fil|command >test.fil
In both instances, the input and output file is the same.
Round Bobbins do not work well in a Unix or GNU shell, because no intermediate file is produced by the operating system. This results in input data being lost, due to the input file being overwritten as soon as the system output buffer is full. Round Bobbins work well on MSDOS based systems using MSDOS version 4.0 or higher.
