Emacs breaks hard links?

Emacs breaks hard links?

[Sebastian Pipping]

Hello!


When I save a file in Emacs it seems the original file
is renamed to "example~" and a new file "example"
is created. This causes trouble with hard links:
If the original file was shared by three hard links
then after saving the other two hard links share
the file content with the backup file while the
up-to-date file is not linked to them anymore.

I wonder if this hard-link-breaking-logic was really
intended. Please let me know what you think about this.


Regards, Sebastian


-- 
Sebastian Pipping
http://www.hartwork.org/

Re: Emacs breaks hard links?

[Reiner Steib]

On Sat, Jul 15 2006, Sebastian Pipping wrote:

> When I save a file in Emacs it seems the original file
> is renamed to "example~" and a new file "example"
> is created. This causes trouble with hard links:
> If the original file was shared by three hard links
> then after saving the other two hard links share
> the file content with the backup file while the
> up-to-date file is not linked to them anymore.
>
> I wonder if this hard-link-breaking-logic was really
> intended. Please let me know what you think about this.

Set `backup-by-copying-when-linked' to t:

,----[ (info "(emacs)Backup Copying") ]
|    The choice of renaming or copying is controlled by four variables.
| Renaming is the default choice.  If the variable `backup-by-copying' is
| non-`nil', copying is used.  Otherwise, if the variable
| `backup-by-copying-when-linked' is non-`nil', then copying is used for
| files that have multiple names, but renaming may still be used when the
| file being edited has only one name.
`----

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
       ,,,
      (o o)
---ooO-(_)-Ooo---  |  PGP key available  |  http://rsteib.home.pages.de/

Re: Emacs breaks hard links?

[Miles Bader]

Sebastian Pipping <webmaster@hartwork.org> writes:
> I wonder if this hard-link-breaking-logic was really
> intended. Please let me know what you think about this.

Yes, it is quite intentional.

If you don't like it, you can set/customize `backup-by-copying' (or
probably rather, `backup-by-copying-when-linked') to true.

-Miles
-- 
"Most attacks seem to take place at night, during a rainstorm, uphill,
 where four map sheets join."   -- Anon. British Officer in WW I