bug#67313: [PATCH] New command write-file-no-switch

[Jeremy Bryant]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2023 23:33:27 +0000
>> From:  Jeremy Bryant via "Bug reports for GNU Emacs,
>>  the Swiss army knife of text editors" <bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
>> 
>> By default write-file changes the buffer to point to the new filename,
>> but a user may wish to simply do the equivalent of write-file without
>> switching, as a sort of backup file.
>> 
>> The attached is a patch concept to introduce the idea.  Please let me
>> know if this makes sense to introduce a new command rather than
>> modifying the existing one (which may be less convenient).  I understand
>> there would be additional things to do for new commands, but would like
>> to propose the idea first.  Any suggestions welcome.
>
> Why is it not enough to be able to use "M-x write-region"?
>
> In any case, a new command is definitely overkill, IMO.
>
>> +  (copy-file buffer-file-name filename)
>
> This doesn't write the buffer to the file, it copies the file visited
> by the buffer to the new file.  So if the buffer has unsaved edits,
> they will not be written, unlike what write-file does.
>
> Also, what if this command is invoked from a buffer that doesn't visit
> any file, and thus buffer-file-name is nil?
>
> Thanks.

Thank you for pointing out write-region, it is indeed more appropriate,
replacing the line above by

(write-region nil nil filename)


The attached patch is the prototype of how this may be used.

0001-write-file-no-visit-Like-write-file-but-without-visi.patch
Description: Text Data