Re: backup files for files under VC

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

>>>> [...]
>>>> 
>>>> and request to change it because the VCS only stores the last
>>>> commit.
>>> 
>>> What version control system would that be?
>> 
>> 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?

This is not a good question: clearly something like this has happened to
Torsten, and clearly it can happen to the best of us.

As for the issue at hand, I agree with Torsten that there is a risk of
losing some data.  Setting vc-make-backup-files to a non-nil value can
reduce this risk.  But note that it does not eliminate the risk.

Experience seems to indicate that for most people, the kind of "backup"
provided by VCS is at least as good as the one provided by Emacs's
backup files, so I think it's best to keep vc-make-backup-files set to
nil by default.

Also if the problem you saw was that after:

1 - edit file
2 - "cvs remove" (or "git remove" or "bzr remove")

the edit was lost, maybe the right place to solve it is in cvs/git/bzr:
revision control systems generally place a lot of emphasis on not losing
any data, so they may/should provide a way to undo the "cvs remove" and
recover the edits you've made in "file".


        Stefan