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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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MRENAME(1)						      General Commands Manual							MRENAME(1)

NAME
mrename - program to rename files SYNOPSIS
mrename 'pattern' prefix [option] DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents briefly the mrename command. This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution because the original program does not have a manual page. mrename is a tool for easy and automatic renaming of many files. The 'pattern' is the pattern to search files to rename (quoted to avoid that bash resolve it), and prefix is the prefix that will be added to the name of each file. The two alternative options for copying or moving files in the new name are explained below. All parameters are needed, and you have to stay and launch the script in the same direc- tory of the files to be renamed. The program should be able to write in this directory. OPTIONS
There are only the following three options. -c The option -c will copy each file with the new filename. -m The option -m will move each file in the new filename. -h Display help. EXAMPLE
If you have a directory with two jpeg images prof.jpg and forp.jpg and you want to add them a prefix like item0, item1 etc.. (that is item0prof.jpg, item1forp.jpg etc..) do this: cd /path/to/the/images mrename '*.jpg' item -c to copy each matching file into another with the new name mrename '*.jpg' item -m to rename each file without keeping a copy with the previous name Word-Wide-Web: http://alfalinux.sourceforge.net/mrename.php3 AUTHOR
: Giancarlo -rofus- Erra e-mail: rofus@mindless.com This manual page was written by Dr. Guenter Bechly <gbechly@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). It is distributed under the GPL just like mrename itself. October 22, 2000 MRENAME(1)
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