Re: backup files for files under VC

[David Kastrup]

Torsten Bronger <address@hidden> writes:

> David Kastrup writes:
>
>> Torsten Bronger <address@hidden> writes:
>>
>>> [...]
>>>
>>> If I change the file, save it, and remove it afterwards, the
>>> changes are lost.
>>
>> Why would you do that without checking this into a branch when you
>> have serious work done on it?
>
> You may do it accidentally.  Backups are a protection from hardware
> failure as well as human errors.  I'm talking about the latter here.

Human error with regard to backups is usually caused by overzealous
wildcards.  The usual backup files provide very little protection
against that and might give a false sense of security.

>> [...]
>>
>>> In contrast to that, a backup file stores the last save instead of
>>> the last commit.  And because this may help in some cases, I suggest
>>> to change the default value of vc-make-backup-files.
>>
>> I vote against it.  Version-controlled directories become messy
>> pretty fast with backup files lying around.
>
> People who find this messy may switch it off if they please.  However,
> I think that the default should be in faviour of safety.

People who find this safe may switch it on if they please.  But in my
book, the tradeoff between annoyance and usefulness for backup files
with versioning systems is not worth the trouble.  This decision has
been made at a time where we were talking pretty much only about
centralized versioning control systems, and the existence of distributed
versioning control tips the scale even further, since local branches
provide much better control over versioning and consistent state savings
than backup files.

> Maybe my workflow is unusual -- I've never talked with other people
> about it -- but I use C-x C-s much more often than C-x v v when
> editing versioned files.  Therefore, I think it is also for these
> files sensible to keep backups of the last save.

That's your opinion based on your workflow.  Mine is different.  And the
historic one seems different as well.  So let's see what others have to
say.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum