maujf@daisy.warwick.ac.uk (Mike Taylor) (01/15/88)
Hello world! This is my first posting to this group, since I've been using ded all my life, but since I changed to emacs, I have been stunned to find that when overwriting a linked file, emacs destroys the links, leaving me with only one version of the file changed. OK, so I could always re-link them afterwards, in fact that's exactly what I *do* do, but it's messy, and frankly I can do without it. I guess those of you who have been using Emacs since the dawn of time will have heard all this many times before, but could anyone tell me a neat and simple way around this? Maybe something I can put in my .emacs file so that it maintains links with edited files? Thanks very much. And have a nice day!
hansen@mips.UUCP (01/16/88)
In article <400@sol.warwick.ac.uk>, maujf@daisy.warwick.ac.uk (Mike Taylor) writes: > ...since I changed to emacs, I have been stunned to find that when > overwriting a linked file, emacs destroys the links, leaving me with only > one version of the file changed. > > I guess those of you who have been using Emacs since the dawn of time will > have heard all this many times before, but could anyone tell me a neat and > simple way around this? Maybe something I can put in my .emacs file so > that it maintains links with edited files? Put the following in your .emacs to cause hard links to be retained: (setq backup-by-copying-when-linked t) The following line will also keep the file modes and ownership retained: (setq backup-bn-copying-when-mismatch t) Now, can anyone tell me how to get emacs to understand that if /user/hansen is a symbolic link to /n/electron/vlsi/hansen, that /user/hansen/.emacs is the same as /n/electron/vlsi/hansen/.emacs, so it won't open two separate buffers for the same file??? [This occurs if, while starting with /user/hansen as your current directory, you enter "emacs .emacs" and then later do a find-file on "/user/hansen/.emacs"] -- Craig Hansen Manager, Architecture Development MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. ...{ames,decwrl,prls}!mips!hansen or hansen@mips.com
wesommer@athena.mit.edu (William E. Sommerfeld) (01/16/88)
In article <400@sol.warwick.ac.uk> maujf@opal.warwick.ac.uk (Mike Taylor) writes: >I have been stunned to find that when >overwriting a linked file, emacs destroys the links, leaving me with only >one version of the file changed. >Maybe something I can put in my .emacs file so >that it maintains links with edited files? Ok, how about: (setq backup-by-copying-when-linked t) backup-by-copying-when-linked's value is t Documentation: *Non-nil means use copying to create backups for files with multiple names. This causes the alternate names to refer to the latest version as edited. This variable is relevant only if backup-by-copying is nil. This is even documented in the emacs manual, although it is listed under "backups", not "saving". Bill Sommerfeld wesommer@athena.mit.edu