Emacs link breaking?

[Michael Still]

On 29 Oct 2002, Bill Clarke wrote:

> go to the "backup" group in customize (M-x customize, Files, Backup).
> the first two options should be on (Make Backup Files), off (Backup By
> Copying) and off (Backup By Copying When Linked).  the third one may be
> non-nil for you which is not what you want.

Yeah, I have these set as you describe, but the behaviour I am seeing
implies it isn't working. Any more hints?

This simple test works as expected:

[root at localhost emacs]# echo "wibble" > a
[root at localhost emacs]# ln a b
[root at localhost emacs]# ls -l
total 8
-rw-r--r--    2 root     root            7 Oct 29 09:28 a
-rw-r--r--    2 root     root            7 Oct 29 09:28 b
[root at localhost emacs]# emacs b
[root at localhost emacs]# ls -l
total 12
-rw-r--r--    2 root     root            7 Oct 29 09:28 a
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           80 Oct 29 09:28 b
-rw-r--r--    2 root     root            7 Oct 29 09:28 b~

Whilst this actual usage fails:

cp -Ral linux-2.5.44 linux-2.5.44-misc_register-004
cd linux-2.5.44-misc_register-004/drivers/char/
emacs qtronix.c
cd /usr/src
find linux-2.5.44-misc_register-004 -type f -name '*~' -exec rm '{}' ';'
diff -Nur linux-2.5.44 linux-2.5.44-misc_register-004

Results in a patch with zero lines in it (because the file wa changed in
both locations).

Perhaps there is something subtle about the cp line which I don't
understand?

Thanks,
Mikal

-- 

Michael Still (mikal at stillhq.com)     UTC +10 hours