jma@abel.UUCP (Jeff Abrahamson) (08/07/89)
When I use the GNU Emacs command "run-input" (i) on the file Rec.humor.funn, emacs converts to Babyl format and shows me a bunch of jokes. What it doesn't show me is that when it saves the Babyl format file, it has really just deleted the original. Not even widening and doing a "save-buffer" or "write-file Rec.humor.funn" causes it to reappear. It does reappear if I save under another name. Now, ~/News/Rec.humor.funn (the truncation is due to UNIX brain-damage 14 char filenames) is created by news2.11, supposedly in UNIX mbox format. I generally move it to ~/Mail/Rec.humor.funn once it is in Babyl format, since I have had trouble letting anything but emacs write to an emacs rmail file (documentation notwithstanding). If I read ~/Mail/Rec.humor.funn, though, emacs deletes that as well. This is behavior I've never seen before. Any thoughts? -- ---------- Jeff Abrahamson jma@abel.uucp, abel!jma@manta.pha.pa.us UPenn Mathematics jma@grad1.cis.upenn.edu Bicycle Coalition of the Delaware Valley
dsill@relay.nswc.navy.mil (Dave Sill) (08/09/89)
In article <438@abel.UUCP>, jma@abel (Jeff Abrahamson) writes: >[Emacs empties file rec.humor.funn.] > > This is behavior I've never seen before. Any thoughts? What's happening is that Emacs is creating a backup file named rec.humor.funn~ (15 characters) which System V truncates to rec.humor.funn. Of course, this behavior is neither funny nor funn. I'm not sure who should take the blame for this: Emacs or System V, but I'd lean toward System V since GNU Emacs is intended to run under GNU, which won't have the 14-character limit. As for a workaround, I'd suggest using shorter filenames or a "real" OS. :-)