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Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users Why is editing a file by renaming the new one safer? Post 303042599 by zxmaus on Wednesday 1st of January 2020 01:28:03 AM
Old 01-01-2020
I am largely with Neo - depending on what file you are modifying, you might not even need a backup copy at all. For example, I often create feeding files for loops - and afterwards modify them (add or remove things) - these are my very own files and I usually can recreate them very easily if I ever have to - so these I modify without any backups. System files however should always be modified after a copy - ideally a copy where ownership and permissions are the same as the original - so if anything ever goes wrong - all you have to do is rename the original file to something like .old and your copy to the original filename.
BTW - in 32 years, I have not lost a single file to a system crash.
 

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VIDIR(1)																  VIDIR(1)

NAME
vidir - edit directory SYNOPSIS
vidir [--verbose] [directory|file|-] ... DESCRIPTION
vidir allows editing of the contents of a directory in a text editor. If no directory is specified, the current directory is edited. When editing a directory, each item in the directory will appear on its own numbered line. These numbers are how vidir keeps track of what items are changed. Delete lines to remove files from the directory, or edit filenames to rename files. You can also switch pairs of numbers to swap filenames. Note that if "-" is specified as the directory to edit, it reads a list of filenames from stdin and displays those for editing. Alternatively, a list of files can be specified on the command line. OPTIONS
-v, --verbose Verbosely display the actions taken by the program. EXAMPLES
vidir vidir *.jpeg Typical uses. find | vidir - Edit subdirectory contents too. To delete subdirectories, delete all their contents and the subdirectory itself in the editor. find -type f | vidir - Edit all files under the current directory and subdirectories. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
EDITOR Editor to use. VISUAL Also supported to determine what editor to use. AUTHOR
Copyright 2006 by Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net> Licensed under the GNU GPL. moreutils 2010-04-28 VIDIR(1)
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