elvprsv ["-why elvis died"] /tmp/filename... elvprsv -R /tmp/filename...
elvprsv preserves your edited text after elvis dies. The text can be recovered later, via the elvprsv program.
For UNIX-like systems, you should never need to run this program from the command line. It is run automatically when elvis is about to die, and it should be run (via /etc/rc) when the computer is booted. THAT'S ALL!
For non-UNIX systems such as MS-DOS or VMS, you can either use elvprsv the same way as under UNIX systems (by running it from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file), or you can run it separately with the "-R" flag to recover the files in one step.
If you're editing a file when elvis dies (due to a bug, system crash, power failure, etc.) then elvprsv will preserve the most recent version of your text. The preserved text is stored in a special directory; it does NOT overwrite your text file automatically. (If the preservation directory hasn't been set up correctly, then elvprsv will simply send you a mail message descrining how to manually run elvprsv.)
elvprsv will send mail to any user whose work it preserves, if your operating system normally supports mail.
Due to the permissions on the /usr/preserve directory, on UNIX systems elvprsv must be run as superuser. This is accomplished by making the elvprsv executable be owned by "root" and turning on its "set user id" bit.
If you're editing a nameless buffer when elvis dies, then elvprsv will pretend that the file was named "foo".
Steve Kirkendall kirkenda@cs.pdx.edu