In my Unix account, where did all of these files with "~" at the ends of them or "#" on both sides come from, and do I need them?

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In my Unix account, where did all of these files with "~" at the ends of them or "#" on both sides come from, and do I need them?

The Emacs text editor creates these files when it performs backups and autosaves of your files. Whenever you start Emacs to edit a file, Emacs creates a backup with the same name, but with a ~ (tilde) tacked on to the end. Emacs creates the files that begin and end with a # (pound sign) when it executes an autosave. Normally, Emacs deletes the autosave when you exit; however, if Emacs crashes or its process is killed, then these files remain.

If you want to keep backups for your important files, then it's not a bad idea to keep these files around. However, if you delete them, under normal circumstances, you won't lose any information.

At Indiana University, for personal or departmental Linux or Unix systems support, see At IU, how do I get support for Linux or Unix?

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Last modified on August 22, 2008.

In my Unix account, where did all of these files with "~" at the ends of them or "#" on both sides come from, and do I need them?

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In my Unix account, where did all of these files with "~" at the ends of them or "#" on both sides come from, and do I need them?

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