Ferret uses a file naming scheme to differentiate successive graphic metafiles and journal files. The scheme is styled after the gnu (Free Software Foundation) emacs editor. The scheme appends numbers to the end of the file name as in the following examples:
Metafile.plt.~2~
metafile.plt.~1~
metafile.plt
or
ferret.jnl.~1~
etc
The third example, "metafile.plt" with no suffix appended, is the most recent file. When the next successive file is created, this file will have the suffix ".~nnn~" appended to its name. "nnn" is the current highest file suffix number plus one.
Two Unix tools are provided to assist with managing multiple file suffix numbers:
Fpurge |
removes all but the current version of the named file (that is, all but the most recent). Example: % Fpurge ferret.jnl |
Fsort |
sorts the versions of a file into increasing numerical order Example: % Fprint 'Fsort metafile.plt*' |
See the introductory chapter, section "Unix tools" for further information.