Win emacs confuses live and backup files on network drives

Win emacs confuses live and backup files on network drives

[Andrew Crawford]

To: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Win emacs confuses live and backup files on network drives
--text follows this line--
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In GNU Emacs 21.2.1 (i386-msvc-windows98.2222)
  of 2002-03-19 on buffy
configured using `configure --with-msvc (12.00)'
Important settings:
   value of $LC_ALL: nil
   value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
   value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
   value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
   value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
   value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
   value of $LC_TIME: nil
   value of $LANG: enu
   locale-coding-system: iso-latin-1
   default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug
and the precise symptoms of the bug:

Sometimes, emacs (GNU Emacs 21.2.1 (i386-mscv-windows98.2222) of 2002-03-19 
on buffy) for Win98 will behave oddly with regard to some files on a 
mounted and mapped Netware volume.  A file with a typical name 
(standard.css in the most recent case) is opened using drag-and-drop or 
file/open.  Changes are made to the file and saved (ctrl-x s.)  The emacs 
status bar shows that the filename is still correct 
(standard.css.)  Looking at the filesystem (with Windows Explorer, DOS, or 
from a Linux system with the same drive mounted) shows that the original 
file has been deleted and the file that was just written (with the new 
changes) is the file with a tilde on the end (standard.css~ in this 
case.)  Instructing emacs to do a "save as" with the original filename 
(standard.css) returns a success message with the ~ on the end ("wrote 
standard.css~") although it actually writes a file with two tildes on the 
end of the name (i.e. standard.css~~.)  Doing another "save as" with the 
original filename (standard.css) causes it to report writing the file with 
2 trailing tildes (i.e. standard.css~~) while actually writing one with 3 
(i.e. standard.css~~~.)  Each attempt will create another new file with an 
extra tilde on the end.  Deleting everything in the directory, exiting 
emacs, and restoring the file from a backup starts the whole process over 
again.

However, it only does it with some files.  Other files in the same tree, it 
edits and saves correctly.

It does not appear to be extension-specific.  It has happened with 
index.html files, for example.

Once it has done it with a particular file, it will nearly always do it 
again with that file if it is restored to its original name.  It will treat 
any file given the problematic name the same way.

If the problem file is copied to another filename (e.g. reet.css,) emacs 
may or may not behave correctly with regard to the file.  That is, the 
content or other properties of the file besides the name do not seem to 
bear on this problem.

I do not experience the problem editing the same files (mounted from the 
same filesystem) with xemacs under Linux.

Recent messages:
Loading php-mode-102 (source)...done
For information about the GNU Project and its goals, type C-h C-p.
call-interactively: End of buffer [2 times]
Wrote p:/websites/testing/standard.css
Wrote p:/websites/testing/standard.css~
Wrote p:/websites/testing/standard.css~~
Wrote p:/websites/testing/standard.css~~~
Loading emacsbug...done

Note that the contents of p:/websites/testing/standard.css before this 
session was one file: standard.css.  That was the file I 
opened.  Afterwards, the directory contained these files:

    standard.css~
    standard.css~~
    standard.css~~~
    standard.css~~~~

Andrew Crawford
gnuemacs@evermore.com

Re: Win emacs confuses live and backup files on network drives

[Richard Stallman]

I expect that the people who work on Emacs on Windows will investigate
at your report.  But I hope you will switch from Windows to GNU/Linux
or some other free operating system.  You can't have freedom as long
as you use Windows.

In hacker terminology, calling something a "win" is a form of praise.
If you wish to praise Microsoft Windows, you're free to do so; but if you
don't, then you might want to think twice about using the term "win98".