Re: [gentoo-user] KDE plasma desktop view shows files that don't exist

[Mateusz Okulus <mmokulus@gmail.com>]

On 22/08/24 11:05AM, Jack wrote:
> Checking here for any ideas or suggestions before I report as a KDE bug.
>
> I have my KDE Plasma desktop set to show my ~/Desktop folder. Two days ago,
> I created a script.pl Perl script in that folder. (No, I don't generally do
> work in that folder, but I just needed a quick script to deal with a file I
> had just downloaded there.) After editing that file in emacs, a script.pl~
> also showed up on the Desktop.  However, so did a file #script.pl#, and
> actually I now have three files showing that name.  The original and the
> emacs backup also show up in Dolphin and an "ls" command in a terminal. 
> None of the "#" files do, however, which is expected, as there are transient
> working files only during an active emacs session.
>
> Trying to edit one (double click) from the desktop opens an empty file, and
> right clicking and selecting Properties shows the correct info as of when
> the file actually existed - but if I ask for any checksums, they show up as
> blank fields.
>
> I've looked, and have not found any relevant bug on the KDE bugzilla.  (As
> it's not likely a Gentoo bug, I don't see any point in filing at b.g.o.)
>
> Has anyone else noticed this?  Can anyone else reproduce it?
>
> Thanks for any feedback.
>
> Jack

I'm fairly sure this isn't a bug, the files exits, and are just empty,
as they show both in Dolphin and using ls.

script.pl~ is an Emacs backup file, it's created automatically and won't
be removed. It was created by Emacs when the original file was still
empty.

#script.pl# is an Emacs auto-saved file, which was also saved when the
buffer was empty. "auto-saves happen every 300 keystrokes, or after
around 30 seconds of idle time", from manual, so you probably left the
empty buffer for more than 30 seconds, but the script was shorter than
300 characters, so it only auto saved the empty file.

Those file exist on your system, they are just empty. That's why the
dates are correct. You can simply delete them if you want.

Those resources might be useful:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/12031838
https://stackoverflow.com/a/18330742

In particular you can disable backup files, if you don't care or use git
for example.

Regards,
mmokulus