Re: backup files for files under VC

[Torsten Bronger <bronger@physik.rwth-aachen.de>]

Hallöchen!

David Kastrup writes:

> Torsten Bronger <bronger@physik.rwth-aachen.de> writes:
>
>> [...]
>>
>> If I change the file, save it, and remove it afterwards, the
>> changes are lost.
>
> Why would you do that without checking this into a branch when you
> have serious work done on it?

You may do it accidentally.  Backups are a protection from hardware
failure as well as human errors.  I'm talking about the latter here.

> [...]
>
>> In contrast to that, a backup file stores the last save instead
>> of the last commit.  And because this may help in some cases, I
>> suggest to change the default value of vc-make-backup-files.
>
> I vote against it.  Version-controlled directories become messy
> pretty fast with backup files lying around.

People who find this messy may switch it off if they please.
However, I think that the default should be in faviour of safety.

Maybe my workflow is unusual -- I've never talked with other people
about it -- but I use C-x C-s much more often than C-x v v when
editing versioned files.  Therefore, I think it is also for these
files sensible to keep backups of the last save.

Tschö,
Torsten.

-- 
Torsten Bronger, aquisgrana, europa vetus
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