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1.                 From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 January 2023):
                   
   
   
                   
                     
   sponge
      <tool> A kind of Unix filter that reads its entire input
      before writing any output, e.g. sort.  Unlike most filters, a
      sponge can safely overwrite the input file with the output data.
      On a file system with file versioning (like ITS or VMS) the
      distinction is less significant because output would be written to
      a new version of the input file anyway.
      See also slurp.
      [Jargon File]
      (2014-06-21)