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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
 

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EX(1)							      General Commands Manual							     EX(1)

NAME
ex, edit - text editor SYNOPSIS
ex [ - ] [ -v ] [ -t tag ] [ -r ] [ +command ] [ -l ] name ... edit [ ex options ] DESCRIPTION
Ex is the root of a family of editors: edit, ex and vi. Ex is a superset of ed, with the most notable extension being a display editing facility. Display based editing is the focus of vi. If you have not used ed, or are a casual user, you will find that the editor edit is convenient for you. It avoids some of the complexi- ties of ex used mostly by systems programmers and persons very familiar with ed. If you have a CRT terminal, you may wish to use a display based editor; in this case see vi(1), which is a command which focuses on the display editing portion of ex. DOCUMENTATION
The document Edit: A tutorial (USD:14) provides a comprehensive introduction to edit assuming no previous knowledge of computers or the UNIX system. The Ex Reference Manual - Version 3.7 (USD:16) is a comprehensive and complete manual for the command mode features of ex, but you cannot learn to use the editor by reading it. For an introduction to more advanced forms of editing using the command mode of ex see the editing documents written by Brian Kernighan for the editor ed; the material in the introductory and advanced documents works also with ex. An Introduction to Display Editing with Vi (USD:15) introduces the display editor vi and provides reference material on vi. In addition, the Vi Quick Reference card summarizes the commands of vi in a useful, functional way, and is useful with the Introduction. FILES
/usr/share/misc/exstrings error messages /usr/libexec/exrecover recover command /usr/sbin/expreserve preserve command /etc/termcap describes capabilities of terminals ~/.exrc editor startup file /tmp/Exnnnnn editor temporary /tmp/Rxnnnnn named buffer temporary /usr/preserve preservation directory SEE ALSO
awk(1), ed(1), grep(1), sed(1), grep(1), vi(1), termcap(5), environ(7) AUTHOR
Originally written by William Joy Mark Horton has maintained the editor since version 2.7, adding macros, support for many unusual terminals, and other features such as word abbreviation mode. BUGS
The undo command causes all marks to be lost on lines changed and then restored if the marked lines were changed. Undo never clears the buffer modified condition. The z command prints a number of logical rather than physical lines. More than a screen full of output may result if long lines are present. File input/output errors don't print a name if the command line `-' option is used. There is no easy way to do a single scan ignoring case. The editor does not warn if text is placed in named buffers and not used before exiting the editor. Null characters are discarded in input files, and cannot appear in resultant files. 4th Berkeley Distribution October 21, 1996 EX(1)
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