From time to time I delete files that I shouldn't and worst is files that I've been writing myself. Therefore I have many times been saved by the backup feature of Emacs.
But my problem is that Emacs only makes a backup the very first time you save a buffer. Is there a way to make Emacs do it every time I press C-x C-s?
This is what my .emacs look like currently (only the part that deals with backups):
;; ===== Backups =====
;; Enable backup files.
(setq make-backup-files t)
;; Save all backup file in this directory.
(setq backup-directory-alist (quote ((".*" . "~/.emacs_backups/"))))
;; Always backup by copying (safest, but slowest)
(setq backup-by-copying t)
;; Append .~1~ (and increasing numbers) to end of file when saving backup
(setq version-control t)
;; Defining how many old versions of a file to keep (starting from the
;; most recent and counting backward
(setq kept-new-versions 100)
After reading this: EmacsWiki: Force Backups
I added these lines to my .emacs:
(defun force-backup-of-buffer ()
(setq buffer-backed-up nil))
(add-hook 'before-save-hook 'force-backup-of-buffer)
It utilizes the standard back up/version control but resets the flag that indicates wether or not the buffer has been backed up this session before a save.
First two rows define a function that resets the flag that indicates wether the buffer was backed up during this session.
Last row adds an event hook that executes the function before a save.
This does exactly what I wanted.