What does the tilde (~) mean at the end of a filename?

Question

What is the file with the ~ at the end of the filename for?

$ ls # aliased to add flags
-rwxrwxr-x  1 durrantm  2741 May 16 09:28 strip_out_rspec_prep_cmds.sh~*
drwxrwxr-x 13 durrantm  4096 May 16 14:21 ../
-rwxrwxr-x  1 durrantm  2221 May 16 14:58 strip_out_rspec_prep_cmds.sh*

This is not the same as .swp files which are there while editing.

The two files have quite a few differences and the newer file (no ~ at the end) has the most recent changes and those changes are not in the older (~) file.

Looks like I can delete it?

Related: http://askubuntu.com/questions/173151/what-does-the-tilde-at-the-end-of-a-file-name-stand-for — , May 17 '13 at 13:17
This is a more canonical (clear, concise, and less localized) Q&A than the duplicate therefore should be reopened to replace it. See: http://meta.unix.stackexchange.com/questions/2840/which-duplicate-should-be-closed — goldilocks, Apr 24 '14 at 16:31

score 34 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 24 '15 at 14:22

34

Typically files ending with a ~ are backups created by editors like emacs, nano or vi.

edited Sep 24 '15 at 14:22

Eric Renouf

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answered May 17 '13 at 12:42

crowbent

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OP asks what ~ means, not what programs might create such files. Please elaborate on what is the purpose of such files. – hellodanylo Jun 09 '14 at 12:43
Also, vim creates `.swp` files. So the answer is not clear. – ado sar Jul 22 '23 at 22:34

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered May 17 '13 at 12:42

10

A tilde suffix is usually used for backup files. Vim and Emacs use this convention and probably many other programs, too. .swp files are vim swap files which are only present during editing of a file or in the case vim crashed.

answered May 17 '13 at 12:42

Marco

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I suspect that Sublime (the editor) is also following this convention – BenKoshy Aug 22 '19 at 01:14

What does the tilde (~) mean at the end of a filename?

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