Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a464
From: a464@mindlink.UUCP (Bruce Dawson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Thanks ASDG
Message-ID: <934@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 13 Jan 90 22:05:52 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 21


     The cygnusedtempa.623 files are temporary files to avoid destroying the
file you were saving if the system crashes mid-save.  If you were working on an
important file and the system crashed halfway through saving on top of it, due
to the design of the file system, you would lose the entire file.  So, we save
it under a temporary name, then delete the old and rename.  So, better the
'cygnusedtempa.623' file being zero length and undeletable than your project.
Also, it is worth noticing that we do _not_ write out the file, wait a few
seconds and then access the disk again.  All of the disk access is done as
quickly as possible, with no delays.  What you are seeing is the normal
behaviour of the filing system.  In an attempt to be more efficient it will
wait a couple of seconds for more data before doing the final write.  You
should _always_ wait several seconds after the last disk activity before
rebooting to make sure that all is _truly_ done, otherwise you risk losing
data.

.Bruce Dawson.

     P.S.  If the system crashes while editing/saving and you lose data, don't
forget about recovercedfiles, which will attempt to locate the files in memory
after you reboot.