reconsider vc-make-backup-files default

reconsider vc-make-backup-files default

[Dave Love]

I think the default for vc-make-backup-files is wrong (not making
backups for vc-controlled files).  It's bitten me in the past and I've
just had an aggrieved user who lost work ask me about it.

People assume Emacs will try to prevent them losing work that way by
default, and you can do a lot of work on vc-controlled files between
checkins.

Re: reconsider vc-make-backup-files default

[Jonathan Kamens]

I think the default is correct.

Re: reconsider vc-make-backup-files default

[Kevin Rodgers]

Dave Love wrote:

> I think the default for vc-make-backup-files is wrong (not making
> backups for vc-controlled files).  It's bitten me in the past and I've
> just had an aggrieved user who lost work ask me about it.


How did that happen?  All I can imagine is that he deleted the file
altogether.  What version control system is he using?


> People assume Emacs will try to prevent them losing work that way by
> default, and you can do a lot of work on vc-controlled files between
> checkins.

Yes, you can.  But I'm happy with the current default.  Big changes
between checkins usually take a long time, and at my site I've got other
backups (daily Network Appliance disk snapshots and Veritas incremental and
full tapes).

I assume you've put (setq vc-make-backup-files make-backup-files) in your
site-start.el for your users, until the default gets changed.


-- 
<a href="mailto:&lt;kevin.rodgers&#64;ihs.com&gt;">Kevin Rodgers</a>