filename- and filename~ files?

slinky2004 · 10-17-2004, 07:20 PM

im running slackware 10 and whenever i create a file, there's always a blank file created called <filename>~, so if i make a file called "asdf.txt" there will be an "asdf.txt~" in the same directory. what are theses files? my /etc folder has ~ files and there a lot of files like "group-". what do the - and ~ mean? do i need these files? the ~ files are empty anyway, i usually just delete those and it doesnt make a difference

Adony · 10-17-2004, 07:43 PM

These are just backup files created by vim (and others i think), to allow you to use multiple undo and redo.
You could safely delete it after editing. the original file.

Robhogg · 10-17-2004, 07:51 PM

I'd been noticing them too, and rather a lot of them...

Is there a way of setting up the system to automatically delete them, say when the original file is closed (to avoid the need of either doing it manually or setting up a script that has to search the whole disk)?

Tinkster · 10-17-2004, 08:27 PM

The ~ files are nothing that the system creates,
they are create by your editor. You can disable
their creation, but it's really quite good practice
to keep them unless you manually make back-up
copies of system files before modifying them.

Cheers,
Tink

slinky2004 · 10-17-2004, 09:45 PM

but they're all empty. why would i want empty files sitting around doing nothing?

Tinkster · 10-17-2004, 10:32 PM

In that case just kill them ... I find it very strange,
however ...

Cheers,
Tink