What does ~ mean at the end of a file name (e.g. httpd.conf~)?

Question

I edited a fresh apache config file in CentOS 5 using gedit. When I looked at the directory I saw now two files:

httpd.conf

and

httpd.conf~

What does the ~ signify?

You should be very careful if you ever publish a website to exclude those file at all cost as one of the classical way to attack a website it to search those file that will be simply diplayed by your webserver as text files, and so reveal your server code (which is bad because no code are 100% reliable) — Kiwy, Apr 24 '14 at 16:19

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:22

2

httpd.conf~ is a file created by gedit (among other programs) - gedit has created it as a backup of the original file, before your changes are saved to it. You can disable this functionality, see this post.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:22

Community

1

answered Apr 24 '14 at 13:58

Josh Jolly

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I believe `emacs` uses this extension as well, for the same purpose. – goldilocks Apr 24 '14 at 14:01
I seldom use gedit and I have many of those files. – Anthon Apr 24 '14 at 14:14
The OP was asking about gedit in particular, but I have edited for clarity. – Josh Jolly Apr 24 '14 at 14:15

What does ~ mean at the end of a file name (e.g. httpd.conf~)?

1 Answers1