bug#15902: 24.3.50; Auto-save file not deleted when quitting Emacs (and saying "don't save")

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

> For example, when I open some files after 3 weeks, how will I know that, for
> some of them, I explicitly disregarded the changes when leaving Emacs (and
> should ignore the message), while, for others, I did not intend to loose the
> modifications, and I would need to recover them?

Of course, it's a tradeoff.  We could let the user choose between "exit
with auto-save" and "exit without auto-save".  But along with "save
& exit" that would make it a 3-way answer, so it would make it
more complex than the simple yes/or question we have now.

Note also that if you don't know whether it's worth recovering, you can
just try it out, then look at the resulting unsaved changes (via
diff-buffer-with-file).

This design is based on the assumption that the usually will usually know if
recovery is useful.  If that's the case, then Emacs's behavior is very
convenient, providing safe defaults without getting in the way.  But if
that's not the case, then indeed it's not perfect, but I think it's
still fairly good.

Another options it to use M-~ before exiting when you know that you
don't want to keep the changes: that should get you rid of both the
prompt and the auto-save file.


        Stefan