Re: Measuring (or calculating) how many bytes are actually written to disk when I repeatedly save a file

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> Anyway, I edit large files many times a day and try to save it at each
> edit or partial edit (at a guess, one particular file is around 100
> MB, and I may save  it 200 or more times a day).

So, we're looking in the order of 100GB / day.

> 1. I'd like to count how many times a day I actually save the file.  (One
> approach (at least I think I could do this) could be to write a sort of shell
> script wrapper and always initiate saves using the shell script, but I was
> hoping there was more of pre-built solution.)

It likely depends on the tool you're using to edit that file (in many
tools you can tweak the tool to keep track of that info).

> 2. A lot of my editing involves editing near (but not at) the end of
> a file.  I assume (I know) that the software that saves the file is
> smart enough not to rewrite the entire file but instead to preserve
> the beginning of the file and just rewrite the changed part of the
> file (or from there to the end of the file).

Not completely sure if "you assume" or "you know" it to be the case.
Especially given that you then add:

> Can anyone confirm that,

which suggest you're not really sure (unless it referred to something else).


        Stefan