I have found them more confusing than valuable, both when working on projects and when teaching folks and they're curious about each of the new files.
I guess we can be glad that the state of user backup/VCS is better now than a decade ago! I tend to have little hope for things like that, but hey! On Mon, Jun 29, 2020, 2:33 PM Jon Evans <j...@craftyjon.com> wrote: > That save process change is what I was referring to in (2) > > The old save process (in 5.1 and earlier) is: > > 1) Move (not copy) filename.ext to filename.ext-bak > 2) Write the save to filename.ext (a new file at this point) > > Our current save process (in nightlies) is: > > 1) Copy filename.ext to filename.ext-bak > 2) Write to .filename.ext$ (a temporary file) > 3) If everything worked, move .filename.ext$ to filename.ext > (overwrites the old file) > > There is no need to delete anything: if the save works, the move > option effectively deletes the temporary file. If the save doesn't > work, the old file is untouched. > > On Mon, Jun 29, 2020 at 3:27 PM Andrew Zonenberg > <azonenb...@drawersteak.com> wrote: > > > > I find them annoying and have to add them to my gitignore's etc > constantly. > > > > They're of no value to me because I tend to save every 30 seconds or so > > while working. > > > > The *one* thing they might be useful for is guarding against kicad > > segfaulting or other failures (disk full, NFS connection lost, etc) > > during the save process itself. To do this, I'd suggest: > > > > * Move old file to file.bak > > * Write new file > > * Delete old file if everything worked. If something goes wrong before > > reaching this point, you can restore from the bak. > > > > On 6/29/20 12:23 PM, Jon Evans wrote: > > > Currently, KiCad automatically creates backups of schematic and PCB > > > files when you save a file. > > > > > > The logic for these backups is basically: if a file already exists > > > with the same name as what we are saving, copy that file to a new file > > > and give it the "-bak" suffix on the file extension. > > > > > > These backups are stored next to the original file in the current > > > KiCad codebase. This understandably creates clutter that some people > > > don't like (myself included) so in the project-settings branch that is > > > about ready to be merged, I changed this behavior to place all these > > > backups in a special backups folder for the project. > > > > > > This proved to have some complications around the handling of files > > > outside the project path (which it's possible to have with > > > hierarchical schematic sheets) so I need to do something else. > > > > > > After some thought, I am pretty convinced that the right thing to do > > > is just *remove this backup feature entirely*. Here's why: > > > > > > 1) It's not a very good backup: It just stores the state from the > > > last time you hit "save". If you hit save again, your backup is blown > > > up. So, it's really like a "undo" function, but on disk, and with > > > only one level of undo. > > > > > > 2) Recently I changed how we save schematic and board files to fix > > > some unrelated issues people were seeing with cloud backup services. > > > Before this change, if KiCad crashed or had some other serious error > > > while saving a file, the file would be lost (because we used to delete > > > the old file and then write a new one in its place). After this > > > change, we write the new file to a temporary location, and only if > > > that write succeeds do we copy it on top of the old file. I think > > > this vulnerability to generating corrupt files if we crash was one of > > > the reasons for this backup file system, and that reason is now gone. > > > > > > 3) Because it's not a very good backup, I worry that the fact that > > > "bak" files exist might cause some users to have a false sense of > > > security and not use a true backup system (like a version control > > > system, or some other mechanism that actually backs up files > > > periodically). I want to remove this false sense of security so that > > > it is more clear that users should back up their files in some way if > > > they care about the work. > > > > > > In other words, I don't think this feature actually gives enough value > > > to make it worth the clutter in the project folder and/or the > > > development effort to make it work well with less clutter. > > > > > > So, I'd like to hear from others on this: anyone disagree? > > > > > > Thanks, > > > Jon > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > > > Post to : kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net > > > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > > > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > Post to : kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp >
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