From: Phil Buxton  <Phil Buxton @BNR.ca>
Subject: Re: .auto files
Organization: Bell Northern Research
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1a2
     <1992Nov19.165839.24339@informix.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 21:54:26 GMT

From: Moira Mallison, moiram@sacajawea.csc.ti.com
Subject: .auto files
In article  Moira Mallison, moiram@sacajawea.csc.ti.com writes:

>
>I didn't really want to revert to the last saved version of my
>document; I wanted to revert to the last auto-saved version of my
document.
>So I've lost a couple hours work I did last night.  
>
>But... system backups run nightly, and I have auto-save set to every 5
>minutes in my preferences file.  I can't find a .auto file in the
>backups though.
>
>I edited a file as a test about 30 minutes ago, and there is no .auto
>file in the cwd, or in /tmp.  Is it someplace else.
>
>Or are last night's edits really gone for good?

I have a litle diagram that we show to our trainees:  It tells you
exactly what 
files exist where and when during a session.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|       |      Time = 0      |      Time = 5      |      Time = 8      |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
|       |    You open a      |    Frame performs  |   YOU do a manual  |
|       |    document        |     an auto save   |   Save and Exit    |
|=======|====================|====================|====================|
|		|	<filename>		 |   <filename>		  |	  <filename>       |
|		|					 |					  |	 (new version)     |
| Files |--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
| that  |    ---------       |   <filename>.auto  |		Removed	 	   |
| are	|--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
| open  | <filename>.lck     |   <filename>.lck   |     Removed        |
|       |--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
|		| <filename>.backup  | <filename>.backup  | <filename>.backup  |
|		|  (old version)     |  (old version)     | (was <filename> at |
|       |                    |                    |  Time T = 0) 	   |
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The <filename>.lck is created whenever a file is opened so that neither
you nor anyone else can open a second version of the same document.
This can be destroyed using the "Reset the Lock" button in the "File
in Use" dialog......but BEWARE.
NOTE
If Frame crashes, it tries to save a <filename>.recover file.  If this
exists 
it will have all the changes that you made to the doc up to the point of
crash.
But be aware that if you use this file changing its name to the original
filename
and destroying all others, you may have some problems with corrupted
cross-
reference path names especially those that are across chapters.  I have
found 
that although Frame can track the pathnames, it will still list them as 
unresolved when regenerating the book.  If you double click the ref it
will 
open the Xref dialog, open the file that they xref to and give you the
exact 
ref in the dialog.  Just hit the replace button and go to the next one 
using the Find command and repeat.  (can be painful!!)
One way round this is to copy and paste the changes that you made since
the last
save into the orig version, if, of course, you can remember what you did
and 
it wasn't silly little edits all the way through a 5000 pg doc!!!

Hope this helps

Diagram courtesy of BNR Training dept
=========================================================================
Phil Buxton        |BNR              |613 765 2980      |FAX 613 765 4908
philb@bnr.ca       |Ottawa, Canada   |ESN 395 2980      |ESN     395 4908
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.text.frame