Question about files with ~ at the end
 

This probably sounds like a newb question but why is it that sometimes when I edit a file (vim) that after i hit :q or :wq to close it. there is a file of the same name in the directory now with a ~ at the end of it

for example, I closed "file1.conf" by typing :wq in vim

then I ls-l in the directory and I have

file1.conf
file1.conf~

I guess it's a backup - do a test and have a look at the two files

The most common reason (that I have seen) for the tilde (~) at the end of a file is that there was an improper shutdown which left a temp file behind.

Some applications will leave a copy of the original file with a file extension, such as; .bak, .orig, etc.

Since you don't name the distro you are using, and the :wq is a proper shutdown for vim, I suspect that is the backup file (a copy of the original) before you edited the file. If anything goes wrong after your edit, you can easily restore to a working condition by copying the <filename>~ to <filename>.

You should do some research into vim and how to turn off the backup feature if you don't want it.

From

http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/cgi-bi...q2html3.pl#7.1

Thank u for the replies. The distro is Slackware. I am going to check those vim settings.

I guess from within vim, just type set nobackup