Subject: [PATCH] Don't rewrite buffer contents after saving by rename

From: Jonathan Tomer <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2019 16:20:09 -0700

When `file-precious-flag' is non-nil, files are saved by renaming a
temporary file to the new name; this is an atomic operation on POSIX
so other programs will not see the file in an intermediate state.
Unfortunately, due to a paren-matching error introduced in change
574c05e219476912db3105fa164accd9ba12b35f, we would then write the
contents again in the usual way after this rename.  In addition to
being wasteful, this is a serious bug: the whole point of
`file-precious-flag' is to prevent race conditions with other programs
that might otherwise see an empty file, but with this bug the race is
actually much *more* likely to be visible: the rename will alert any
inotify watchers of a change, and then the subsequent write is very
likely to truncate the file just as those programs start to read it!
* lisp/files.el (basic-save-buffer-2): Don't rewrite file contents
  after saving-by-renaming.
* test/lisp/files-tests.el (files-tests-dont-rewrite-precious-files):
  Regression test for this change.
---
 etc/NEWS                 |  7 +++++++
 lisp/files.el            |  4 ++--
 test/lisp/files-tests.el | 27 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 36 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index 9b32d720b6..5bfadcbbd6 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -340,6 +340,13 @@ longer.
 ** Multicolor fonts such as "Noto Color Emoji" can be displayed on
 Emacs configured with Cairo drawing and linked with cairo >= 1.16.0.
 
+---
+** The file-precious-flag is now respected correctly.
+A bug previously caused files to be saved twice when
+`file-precious-flag' or `break-hardlinks-on-save' were specified: once
+by renaming a temporary file to the destination name, and then again
+by truncating and rewriting the file, which is exactly what
+`file-precious-flag' is supposed to avoid.
 
 * Editing Changes in Emacs 27.1
 
diff --git a/lisp/files.el b/lisp/files.el
index c05d70a00e..72518e8127 100644
--- a/lisp/files.el
+++ b/lisp/files.el
@@ -5256,7 +5256,7 @@ basic-save-buffer-2
 		     (set-file-extended-attributes buffer-file-name
 						   (nth 1 setmodes)))
 		 (set-file-modes buffer-file-name
-				 (logior (car setmodes) 128))))))
+				 (logior (car setmodes) 128)))))
 	(let (success)
 	  (unwind-protect
 	      (progn
@@ -5272,7 +5272,7 @@ basic-save-buffer-2
 	    (and setmodes (not success)
 		 (progn
 		   (rename-file (nth 2 setmodes) buffer-file-name t)
-		   (setq buffer-backed-up nil))))))
+		   (setq buffer-backed-up nil)))))))
     setmodes))
 
 (declare-function diff-no-select "diff"
diff --git a/test/lisp/files-tests.el b/test/lisp/files-tests.el
index ae8ea41a79..07012fea6e 100644
--- a/test/lisp/files-tests.el
+++ b/test/lisp/files-tests.el
@@ -1244,5 +1244,32 @@ files-tests-file-attributes-equal
                     (executable-find (file-name-nondirectory tmpfile))))))
       (delete-file tmpfile))))
 
+(ert-deftest files-tests-dont-rewrite-precious-files ()
+  "Test that `file-precious-flag' forces files to be saved by
+renaming only, rather than modified in-place."
+  (files-tests--with-temp-file temp-file-name
+    (with-current-buffer (find-file-noselect temp-file-name)
+      (let* (temp-file-events watch)
+        (unwind-protect
+            (progn
+              (setq watch
+                    (file-notify-add-watch
+                     temp-file-name '(change)
+                     (lambda (event)
+                       (add-to-list 'temp-file-events (cadr event) 'append))))
+              (setq-local file-precious-flag t)
+              (insert "foobar")
+              (should (null (save-buffer)))
+
+              ;; file-notify callbacks are input events, so we need to
+              ;; accept input before checking results.
+              (sit-for 0.1)
+
+              ;; When file-precious-flag is set, the visited file
+              ;; should never be modified, only renamed-to (which may
+              ;; appear as "renamed" and/or "created" to file-notify).
+              (should (not (memq 'changed temp-file-events))))
+        (file-notify-rm-watch watch))))))
+
 (provide 'files-tests)
 ;;; files-tests.el ends here
-- 
2.21.0.593.g511ec345e18-goog