Keeping a copy of a file in a same directory [closed]

Question

I am working on linux scripts , Assume that the directory is consisting of these following scripts .

ls *.sh

test.sh 
MyScripts.sh 

My question is , before making any modifications to test.sh script , i want to keep a backup copy of it , so that if anything messes up , i will be not screwed up . please tell me how can i keep a copy of test.sh in the same directory ?? before making any modifications to the actual file test.sh .

Thank you very much .

Answer 1

Consider using revision control, such as git or Subversion.

You can make a copy before your work too:

cp test.sh test.sh.orig

Answer 2

The usual approach is to

 cp test.sh test.sh~

(or test.sh.bck or whatever naming convention). In fact, any decent editor should have an option to do this automatically for you. Vim does it by default (saves a backup name filename~ on modification)

May I heartily suggest a version control solution for this purpose instead?

Good 'starter' options include:

• bazaar
• mercurial

I personally vouch for git.

_{I took care to name (D)VCS methods that have ample interoperability options so as to prevent data lockin.}