data loss in editor when disk is full

[mc-butler]

Important

This issue was migrated from Trac:

Origin	https://midnight-commander.org/ticket/2470
Reporter	nerijus (nerijus@….sourceforge.net)

I have partition which is full, so I cannot write to it as a normal user (I can as root):

$ df -h
Failų sistema Size Used Avail Use% Prijungta prie
/dev/md2 380G 361G 0 100% /mnt/d

There is a text file in this partition:
$ ls -l test_file
-rw-rw-rw- 1 nerijus nerijus 10 2011-01-10 03:59 test_file

I edit (F4) it, enter few letters and press F2. Instead os saving file, mc opens "Save As" dialog with file name written. Pressing Enter gives "Cannot save file". I still see file contents in the editor, but

$ ls -l test_file
-rw-rw-rw- 1 nerijus nerijus 0 2011-01-10 04:02 test_file

shows that file's length is already 0. As I cannot save file, I quit editor w/o saving and file content is lost.

[mc-butler]

Changed by ossi (@ossilator) on Jan 10, 2011 at 8:55 UTC (comment 1)

that's kinda a user error. your editor => options => save mode is "quick safe" instead of "safe save", which implies that you have to assume that a file error during saving will actually clobber an existing file.

i don't know what the default is, though. arguably, "safe save" might be the better choice.

[mc-butler]

Changed by nerijus (nerijus@….sourceforge.net) on Jan 10, 2011 at 15:44 UTC (comment 2)

Yes, "safe save" does not loose data, it creates empty cooledit5aU2Cc file in the same directory. But I don't agree it's a user error. Software should never loose data. If you choose to not correct "quick save", a warning in big letters should be added "DATA CAN BE LOST".

[mc-butler]

Changed by angel_il (@ilia-maslakov) on Apr 6, 2012 at 12:37 UTC (comment 3)

• Type changed from defect to enhancement
• Branch state set to no branch

[mc-butler]

Changed by angel_il (@ilia-maslakov) on Apr 6, 2012 at 13:10 UTC (comment 4)

• Resolution set to duplicate
• Status changed from new to closed

see #15

[mc-butler]

Changed by andrew_b (@aborodin) on Apr 6, 2012 at 14:40 UTC (comment 5)

• Milestone 4.8 deleted

[mc-butler]

Changed by andrew_b (@aborodin) on Jan 4, 2021 at 15:41 UTC (comment 6)

Ticket #4166 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.

[mc-butler]

Changed by zaytsev (@zyv) on Feb 21, 2025 at 7:46 UTC (comment 7)

Closed as duplicate of #15.