Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 20 Dec 2001 21:32:22 +0000 | From | Jamie Lokier <> | Subject | Re: File copy system call proposal |
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Daniel Phillips wrote: > > > Consider the _very_ common case (that nobody has mentioned yet) where you > > > are editing a large file. When you write to the file, the editor copies > > > the file to a backup, then immediately truncates the original file and > > > writes the new data there. What would be _far_ preferrable is to > > > just > > > > Are you sure? I think editor just _moves_ original to backup. > > It would be so nice if all editors did that, but most don't according to the > tests I've done, especially the newer ones like kedit, gnome-edit etc. I > think this is largely due to developers not knowing why it's good to do it > this way.
Moving the original to make a backup is a _bad_ thing if the original might be hard-linked and you'd like all instances to be written to. OTOH it'a a good thing if you're using hard links for poor man's version control (`cp -rl'). Hey :)
Emacs does this perfectly with `backup-by-copying-when-linked' (an option you can change, but I like it on).
-- Jamie - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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