Editing Hard Linked Files in Emacs -solution

[jbk-SkCWf5sxpj0sV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org (jbk)]

Jerry Feldman wrote:
> On 12/26/2008 10:08 PM, David Kramer wrote:
>> jbk wrote:
>>   
> Yes he is talking about a file that has more than 1 link. The way emacs 
> works, is that it renames the original file by appending a tilde (~). 
> So, when you save, you are saving a completely new file. In emacs, this 
> is called version control. You can set version-control in emacs to make 
> numbered backups.
> 
> The solution to this is to set the emacs variable, backup-by-copying to 
> non-nil. The way to do this from the emacs minibuffer is "
> 
> M-x set-variable". This emacs command will allow you to set the 
> variable. It can also be done in your ~/.emacs file. It took me a while 
> to remember this. Way back when I first learned emacs ('82).
> 


If I change that globally what effect will that have on all 
the saves? Will a backup still be created? I was going to 
try version control but I didn't have the SVC backend 
installed. I may have the acronim incorrect for the version 
control. I used to use it a few distro updates back.

Jim KR