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From: craig@med.unc.edu (Ron Craig)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: using \TMP (was Re: Problem with Elvis 1.4 )
Message-ID: <3681@beguine.UUCP>
Date: 8 May 91 19:58:46 GMT
References: <1991Apr25.182716.27779@cbfsb.att.com> <51143@prls.UUCP> <1991May4.150418.25635@midway.uchicago.edu>
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Dangerous suggestions from both of you!

In article <1991May4.150418.25635@midway.uchicago.edu> valley@gsbsun.uchicago.edu (Doug Dougherty) writes:
>gordon@prls.UUCP (G Vickers) writes:
>>       Since \TMP is for transisional stuff I would recommend NOT having
>>   it on the hardrive.  I set an enviromental variable to define \TMP
>>   as being on one of my floppy drives , or I'll specify \TMP during a
>>   program configuration.  The goal is to minimize the number of short
>>   lived files on the hard drive since this leads to fragmentation.  It's
>>   much easier to reformat a fragmented floppy.
>Surely, this is a joke...
>But seriously, I think what Gordon meant to say is that it should go 
>on a RAMdisk.
>	(Another fine mess brought to you by valley@gsbsun.uchicago.edu)

If you read the docs on Elvis, you will discover the purpose of this 
directory and file is to hold a copy of the currently-edited file.

This is also how recoveries are made if either Elvis or your system crash.  
Placing this tmp directory on a RAMdisk is *dangerous* since having to reset 
your machine would mean losing your changes to the file for the *entire* last
editing session instead of only the *last change* you made to the file.  
Be careful out there.  

Note also that if you have any autoexec.bat code to clear our your tmp 
directory on bootup, it should be careful *not* to delete elvis temporary 
files since rebooting your machine would otherwise erase these files before
you could recover your editing.

See the docs for more information.
-- 
 Ron Craig                    inet-   craig@med.unc.edu 
 CB# 8180 - UNC Chapel Hill   bitnet- URONCR@UNC.BITNET  AT&T- (919) 966-3681
 Chapel Hill NC 27599-8180  My opinions are valued by UNC, not shared by them.