goldfain@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu (11/01/87)
The GNU Emacs documentation says lots of things about file-handling and
the making of backup and checkpoint (auto-save) files. I haven't any
complaints - it has never lost anything, but when our file system got full, a
couple of times I have had to cross my fingers. Recent versions have a
"file-precious" flag which can be set. The description of this now has me
confused. Could someone write a summary that describes what actions are
taken in the file system and when? As an example, suppose I enter
gnumacs myfile
and edit it, and save it a couple of times during the edit session (which I
used to do before I understood what auto-save was doing), then finally exit.
I would love a single, coherent, walk-through account, which compares the
various usual behaviors, and their dependence on variable settings. On my
first pass, please leave out any account of weird things like links, or
unusual buffers like RMAIL.
Thanks, Mark Goldfain arpa: goldfain@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu