backup-by-renaming: preference variable

Default value: 2

When the want-backups variable tells Epsilon to back up files before it saves them, it can do this in one of two ways, either by renaming the original file and then writing a new file by that name, or by copying the data from the original file to the backup file, then modifying the original file.

Renaming is faster, but if the file system provides the original file with some special properties or attributes, and Epsilon doesn't know how to copy them from one file to another, the properties may become associated with the backup file, not the original. Copying instead of renaming avoids this problem.

If this variable is zero, Epsilon always copies files to back them up. If this variable is one, Epsilon tries to rename the file, only copying the file if it can't successfully rename the file. If this variable is two, the default, Epsilon copies under Unix (since some security-enhanced versions of Linux use just such attributes) and tries to rename first under Windows.

More info:

Backup Files

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