Sponsored Content
Top Forums UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users Why is editing a file by renaming the new one safer? Post 303042600 by Neo on Wednesday 1st of January 2020 03:17:37 AM
Old 01-01-2020
I agree.

For many non-critical files, where I am making small, incremental changes, I often do not make a fresh backup copy, especially because I have off-platform backups as well; and edit the file directory and save it, as normal.

Like zxmaus, I cannot recall every losing a file due to a system crash while editing a file, in over 40 decades of working with computers.

However, I do recall making a lot of "simple human mistakes" and have learned to be "saved by backups". This leads me to always recommend people make and maintain filesystem backups, based on their risk management model (criticality, vulnerability, threats).

These days, more-often-than-not, for a increasing majority of my file edits, if they are significant, I will sftp the file to my desktop, open the file in Visual Studio Code (or cut-and-paste into VSC if a small file) , edit the file using all the available syntax and formatting tools and plugins, and save the edited file with a different name, preserving the original file on my working directory on my desktop, and then I will either sftp or cut-and-past into the remote server over an ssh terminal.

I cannot count the number of times VSC has been helpful to spot a syntax error which missed my tired, overworked eyes. The formatting is also useful (indentations, consistent formatting, etc) is also very useful in VSC. These kinds of tools are really time savers, especially for syntax checking.

It goes without saying, I use vi every day to edit files; but I also use vi in conjunction with VSC, more and more; for the syntax checking and formatting for code (programming languages) and JSON files, etc. But as I am quick to confess I do edit files with vi and do not make make a backup copy, but not often; but if it is some small change which i can easily revert-back based on "memory", then I am guilty. I also push files to private GIT repositories as well, when my work on critical files are done. GIT is Good for backups Smilie
 

9 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Editing the end of the file without loading the entire file

hi! I am a newbee. I would really appreciate if you can answer the following question: I have a huge data file, 214MB with several coloumns. I need to delete the very last line of the file. Everything I know takes a lot of time to do it ( because I have to open the file in an editor or run a... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: Garuda
3 Replies

2. What is on Your Mind?

Nuclear Elephant iPhone Wipe making your iPhone Safer for Resale

For those with the iPhones here might read up how to wipe your personal data off the phone before reselling or trade-in. ;) source: Nuclear Elephant: iPhone Wipe June 1, 2008: Making your iPhone Safe for Resale Since my posts regarding the iPhone restore mode being insufficient for wiping... (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: sparcguy
0 Replies

3. What is on Your Mind?

Is M$ safer than UN*X(-LIKE)??

I know that you already know the answer to the question. It just springed in my mind after what happened yesterday. I was getting some books off of Amazon.com, since they are cheeper than bookstore, and my mother said something that made me laugh 'till I couldn't breathe. I have a Debian Lenny... (12 Replies)
Discussion started by: Texasone
12 Replies

4. Solaris

metaset - renaming /editing the set name - possible ?

Hi all I need to change my current metaset setname from lh-rms02ds to lh-lgwrms01ds. Is it possible ?? I know within veritas I do a vxedit, is there a way in SVM ? I notice theres a metarename, but this is for the metadevice level. Any tips ? help ?? Or do I need to delete /... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: sbk1972
2 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

Help with file editing while keeping file format intact

Hi, I am having a file which is fix length and comma seperated. And I want to replace values for one column. I am reading file line by line in variable $LINE and then replacing the string. Problem is after changing value and writing new file temp5.txt, formating of original file is getting... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: Mruda
8 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

editing line in text file adding number to value in file

I have a text file that has data like: Data "12345#22" Fred ID 12345 Age 45 Wilma Dino Data "123#22" Tarzan ID 123 Age 33 Jane I need to figure out a way of adding 1,000,000 to the specific lines (always same format) in the file, so it becomes: Data "1012345#22" Fred ID... (16 Replies)
Discussion started by: say170
16 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

Need help in editing a file

I have a file which has 10 million records in it. When am trying to edit the file with vi, the following error occurs: ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ "file1" Value too large for defined data type Is there any way that I can edit this file without using vi? Any help would be really appreciated.... (8 Replies)
Discussion started by: bobby1015
8 Replies

8. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

# /UNIX.org file deleting is safer or not

Hi All, Please tell me the use of # /Unix.org file it has reserved a huge disk space, I want to know is it safer to truncate or delete. Thanks - Rukshan.:) (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: rukshan4u2c
1 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

Convert vi editing to text editing

Dear Guru's I'm using Putty and want to edit a file. I know we generally use vi editor to do it. As I'm not good in using vi editor, I want to convert the vi into something like text pad. Is there any option in Putty to do the same ? Thanks for your response. Srini (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: thummi9090
6 Replies
STOREBACKUPDEL(1)					User Contributed Perl Documentation					 STOREBACKUPDEL(1)

NAME
storeBackupDel.pl - this program deletes backups created by storeBackup SYNOPSIS
storeBackupDel.pl [-f configFile] [--print] [-b backupDirectory] [-S series] [--doNotDelete] [--deleteNotFinishedDirs] [-L lockFile] [--keepAll timePeriod] [--keepWeekday entry] [--keepFirstOfYear] [--keepLastOfYear] [--keepFirstOfMonth] [--keepLastOfMonth] [--keepFirstOfWeek] [--keepLastOfWeek] [--keepDuplicate] [--keepMinNumber] [--keepMaxNumber] [-l logFile [--plusLogStdout] [--suppressTime] [-m maxFilelen] [[-n noOfOldFiles] | [--saveLogs] [--compressWith compressprog]] WARNING
!!! USAGE IN PARALLEL WITH storeBackup.pl CAN DESTROY YOUR BACKUPS !!! OPTIONS
--file, -f configuration file (instead of parameters) --print print configuration read from configuration file and stop --backupDir, -b top level directory of all backups (must exist) --series, -S directory of backup series same parameter as in storeBackup / relative path from backupDir, default is 'default' --lockFile, -L lock file, if exists, new instances will finish if an old is already running, default is $lockFile --doNotDelete test only, do not delete any backup --deleteNotFinishedDirs delete old backups which where not finished this will not happen if doNotDelete is set --keepAll keep backups which are not older than the specified amount of time. This is like a default value for all days in --keepWeekday. Begins deleting at the end of the script the time range has to be specified in format 'dhms', e.g. 10d4h means 10 days and 4 hours default = $keepAll; --keepWeekday keep backups for the specified days for the specified amount of time. Overwrites the default values chosen in --keepAll. 'Mon,Wed:40d Sat:60d10m' means: keep backups of Mon and Wed 40days + 5mins keep backups of Sat 60days + 10mins keep backups of the rest of the days like spcified in --keepAll (default $keepAll) if you also use the 'archive flag' it means to not delete the affected directories via --keepMaxNumber: a10d4h means 10 days and 4 hours and 'archive flag' e.g. 'Mon,Wed:a40d Sat:60d10m' means: keep backups of Mon and Wed 40days + 5mins + 'archive' keep backups of Sat 60days + 10mins keep backups of the rest of the days like specified in --keepAll (default $keepAll) --keepFirstOfYear do not delete the first backup of a year format is timePeriod with possible 'archive flag' --keepLastOfYear do not delete the last backup of a year format is timePeriod with possible 'archive flag' --keepFirstOfMonth do not delete the first backup of a month format is timePeriod with possible 'archive flag' --keepLastOfMonth do not delete the last backup of a month format is timePeriod with possible 'archive flag' --firstDayOfWeek default: 'Sun'. This value is used for calculating --keepFirstOfWeek and --keepLastOfWeek --keepFirstOfWeek do not delete the first backup of a week format is timePeriod with possible 'archive flag' --keepLastOfWeek do not delete the last backup of a week format is timePeriod with possible 'archive flag' --keepDuplicate keep multiple backups of one day up to timePeriod format is timePeriod, 'archive flag' is not possible default = $keepDuplicate; --keepMinNumber Keep that miminum of backups. Multiple backups of one day are counted as one backup. Default is 10. --keepMaxNumber Try to keep only that maximum of backups. If you have more backups, the following sequence of deleting will happen: - delete all duplicates of a day, beginning with the old once, except the oldest of every day - if this is not enough, delete the rest of the backups beginning with the oldest, but *never* a backup with the 'archive flag' or the last backup --keepRelative, -R Alternative deletion scheme. If you use this option, all other keep options are ignored. Preserves backups depending on their *relative* age. Example: -R '1d 7d 2m 3m' will (try to) ensure that there is always - One backup between 1 day and 7 days old - One backup between 5 days and 2 months old - One backup between 2 months and 3 months old If there is no backup for a specified timespan (e.g. because the last backup was done more than 2 weeks ago) the next older backup will be used for this timespan. --logFile, -l log file (default is STDOUT) --plusLogStdout if you specify a log file with --logFile you can additionally print the output to STDOUT with this flag --suppressTime suppress output of time in logfile --maxFilelen, -m maximal length of file, default = 1e6 --noOfOldFiles, -n number of old log files, default = 5 --saveLogs save log files with date and time instead of deleting the old (with [-noOldFiles]) --compressWith compress saved log files (e.g. with 'gzip -9') default is 'bzip2' COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2003-2008 by Heinz-Josef Claes (see README). Published under the GNU General Public License v3 or any later version perl v5.14.2 2012-06-16 STOREBACKUPDEL(1)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 09:30 AM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy