GNU bug report logs - #23483
24.5; cygwin emacs w32 doesn not ask to save files when windows shuts down

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From: "Strozzi, David J." <strozzi2 <at> llnl.gov>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: "kbrown <at> cornell.edu" <kbrown <at> cornell.edu>, "23483 <at> debbugs.gnu.org" <23483 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: bug#23483: 24.5; cygwin emacs w32 doesn not ask to save files when windows shuts down
Date: Fri, 13 May 2016 20:02:08 +0000

Hmmm, this doesn't sound like a great fix.  It's really a "failsafe", but not what Windows users expect.  When you open the file again, how will you know that there's another auto-save file?  Will emacs tell you?  What if you open the file in another program?  Or you're editing source code / script and then make / run it, nothing will tell you about the auto-saved file.

Perhaps better is to have emacs simply abort a restart / shutdown and require the user to manually close emacs.  If it doesn't behave like other windows programs (query user to save unsaved files), then we have to remember emacs is special.  You could have a parameter for whether emacs aborts a windows shutdown, default to yes, and then users and consciously shut it off if they want.

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: Eli Zaretskii [mailto:eliz <at> gnu.org] 
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2016 10:47 AM
To: Strozzi, David J.
Cc: kbrown <at> cornell.edu; 23483 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#23483: 24.5; cygwin emacs w32 doesn not ask to save files when windows shuts down

> From: "Strozzi, David J." <strozzi2 <at> llnl.gov>
> CC: "23483-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org" <23483-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
> Date: Fri, 13 May 2016 16:22:43 +0000
> 
> Thanks for addressing this!  The usual behavior of windows programs on restart or shutdown is to ask the user to save unsaved files, rather than saving them silently.  The current patch to save automatically is better than losing data, but prompting the user I think would be the best thing.  Or even having emacs abort the shutdown and give a message like "emacs cancelled shutdown due to unsaved files."

The patch doesn't save files automatically, it performs "auto-save", which saves the modified buffers into separate files, from which you can restore afterwards.

FWIW, I don't see why asking the user would be better.

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