Re: Is it possible to prevent emacs auto saving the filename~?

[Tassilo Horn]

Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> writes:

Hi!

>> I know that emacs auto save a file named filename~ when I modified
>> the file filename, but I do not like the autosaved copy, could i stop
>> this function? thanks
>
> The variable that you are probably looking for is make-backup-files.
> Read also the related section in the Emacs reference manual:
>
>     C-h r m Backup RET

As an addition to the previous tips.  In general making backup files is
a good thing, so you most probably don't want to turn it off.  But I
understand that you don't want to clutter the filesystem.  But emacs
allows to place the backup files in one single directory.  Here's the
config:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(setq version-control t)
(setq kept-old-versions 0)
(setq kept-new-versions 20)
(setq delete-old-versions t)
(setq backup-directory-alist
      '((".*" . "~/.emacs.d/backup-files/")))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

This saves the last 20 versions of all files I edit in
~/.emacs.d/backup-files/.  (Yes, I'm paranoid!  Additionally all my
important files are under version control (git, svn), too.)

Bye,
Tassilo