~ after script filename?

[Steve Horsley]

presentt wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I just wrote a really simple script and named it helloworld.py.  Inside
> was only:
> 
> #!/usr/bin/env
> print "Hello, world"
> 
> I used chmod to set the permissions, and ran it to see what happened (I
> just started learning Python, if you couldn't guess)
> 
> Then, I typed ls in the directory to see what was there, and I noticed
> a new file, namely helloworld.py~ .  What is that file (its contents
> are identicle to helloworld.py)?  Why the ~?
> 
> Thanks a lot.  I'm using Ubuntu Linux 5.04 (Hoary), and wrote the
> script with gedit.
> 
> ~~Ted Present
> 

As others have said, this is a feature of gedit. It can make a 
backup copy of the previous version as you save, and can also 
automatically save periodically (default seems to be 10 minutes). 
 From the menus, choose:
   Edit -> Preferences
and see the section marked File Saving.

Steve