What's the .mscz, file for and is it really needed?

• Oct 21, 2011 - 08:54

I always hated file litter, and, even after I closed MuseScore, this file stil remained on my Desktop (I have my OS set to show me every Hidden files and folders and also protected operating system files).

Is this thing really needed? I can't think of a use for it, is it efficient data-trafic wise? Is there a button to disable it somewhere?

Thanks!

Comments

• Oct 21, 2011 - 10:43

It's a backup of your file for use should your mscz file become corrupted by a MuseScore crash.

Personally I would leave it alone.

But why are you saving MuseScore files to the Desktop? Anything saved on the Desktop takes up system memory, and therefore slows down the operation of your PC.

That is assuming you are using Windows

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• Oct 21, 2011 - 11:31

When you save an existing file, MuseScore will first save the file in a temporary file (.temp) to avoid the corruption of your existing file if something goes wrong during the saving process. Then it will delete the .mscz, file if it exists. It will take the existing file and rename it to XXX.mscz,. And finally it will rename the .temp file to the .mscz file you wanted to be save in.

You end up with a mscz file containing the current score and a mscz, file containing the previous version of your scores. That's why there is no .mscz, the first time you save your file.

If you are interesting, the code of the "saving procedure" is in file.cpp.

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• Oct 21, 2011 - 11:50

Isn't this technique a mere unneded compromise?

I know that other software also have this, but they clean up after themselves and don't leave stuff after them that is just a sure means of confusion for the user. :)

My case was the .mscz, file remaining there even after I closed MuseScore, that's why I was asking about it.

This feature is OK with me as long as it also cleans up after itself as in deleting the unneded .mscz, file afterwards, because, that extra thing is simply useless, I will never use it or open it again.

Or maybe there's something else that I'm not understanding here.

I mean, why would something go wrong during the saving process? Is this some kind of a lack-of-trust symptom manifesting due to MuseScore?

Probably the solving of all of this would be to implement yet an other "set of instructions" to the code so that it cleans up after itself though the whole thing seems a waste of work to me as I trust MuseScore to save my file correctly and have no fears it will corrupt somehow out of the blue sky :D

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• Oct 21, 2011 - 16:10

A backup is still useful after you close MuseScore. I don't know of any other Windows programs that create backups but then delete them - that partially defeats the purpose of making a backup available! Backups are not just an internal thing used during the saving process, they are to allow you to roll your work back to a previous version if necessary. Just like all other programs I know that create backups.

My only beef with the MuseScore backup is the naming - the leading period causes them to display at the top of the folder listing (at least, on Windows, using default filename sorting) and way too often people mistake them for the real file because it's what they see first.

Btw, one thing that causes a write to fail is if the score is open in another program at the same time. Presumably also disk full.

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• Oct 21, 2011 - 18:47

Microsoft Office Suits generally keep back-ups in separate hidden files but deletes them once the user closes the application because, there is no point in keeping a back-up of an OLDER version of the file that one just saved by closing.

I just can't imagine when in my life-time I'd even have need of an .mscz, file, after I'm done with my score I just close it and that's that, I have it there already.

Good thing that you noted the thing about the folder listing, I knew this thing was confusing from the beggining, but I didn't even think it could produce even MORE confusion like the one you just described.

That's even more reasons to just ditch the thing altogether or make it delete that back-up after the file is closed.

What good is a back up of an older revision of a file that I already have? It only creates litter and confusion, I remember when this was first introduced, that was and still is my opinion of this mechanism.

Or, at least, it would be nice to implement an on/off button so that users who don't want it and are more confident in themselves and what they're doing can disable it.

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• Oct 21, 2011 - 18:53

Personally, I find the backup file naming quite illogical. On Windows it always ends up at the top of the listing (in a certain view) or at the very least it preceeds the real MSCZ file, making the backup appear to be the real file. This is why so many people attach the incorrect file when uploading scores or samples. I would much prefer a different file extension (BAK), with hidden/system attributes, so they are both invisible and won't conflict with anything else. Or a config switch to disable their creation.

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• Oct 21, 2011 - 19:34

Schepers, we DO think the same! "Great minds think alike" don't they!

This is EXACTLY what I was also saying, this so called "back-up" feature has not created any else but confusion since it's inception, I remember have the exact same opinion about it from the begining...

Even with hidden/system attributes, they will still be seen by users who generally want to see everything, and, also, think of the litter that this leaves for users who DON'T enable show hidden files and all of that... This would NOT be nice at all for users.

I strongly agree with the idea of a config switch that just disables their creation, these things will never be used because the user already has the newest copy of the score he worked on, what use will be to him an older copy of it?

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• Oct 21, 2011 - 20:11

I do agree that MuseScore does crash sometimes (I haven't seen any of that lately, it used to happen a lot at the beggining of this project), but I would STILL like to disable this.

The problem is, how does this work, does MuseScore constantly transfer the data input into MuseScore to the second back-up file? Or does it only do that every 2 minutes when the Auto-Save thing kicks in?

I would really want the option of turning this thing off... For me, it's useless...

I mean, it's not like MuseScore isn't going to save anything in the score file even if it does crash.

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• Oct 21, 2011 - 19:11

Maybe MS Office stopped leaving the backups in place at some point, or provides a non-default option to suppress them, but looking at my own document folders, I've got non-hidden backups of every document I ever created in Word ("Backup of xxxx.wbk") until I stopped using it a few years back. So at least until then, it created backups, did not hide them, and did not delete them. And I similarly have non-hidden backups of all my documents created automatically by Finale. Admittedly, not *every* application I use regularly creates these, but it's far from unusual.

As for not needing the backup after you are completely done, well of course - and you are free to delete them. Makes sense; I'm just lazy so I've left my backups around. But it's while you are still actively working on a document that it definitely makes sense to keep the backup around, because that's when you might need it.

I'd be all in favor of an option to control whether they are kept around or not, but the default should be to keep them, I think. And if there is not going to be an option, I definitely would say they should be kept. Put it this way - you can always delete backups if you feel they are unnecessary, but you cannot make one appear when you need it if it wasn't already created.

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• Oct 21, 2011 - 19:46

That .wbk thing was like way back in the days of WordPerfect man...

They stopped that because they realised no one used those...

It just makes one's life more complicated to have to delete scores of score duplicates that don't help.

And as a matter of fact, what point of the creation of the score DO those back-ups represent? The one just before closing? Does it represent a complete history of everything that was done since the score was created from the beggining thus enabling the user the possibility to backtrack his creating of the score? Is this like a complete Undo history backup?

But even then, what USE does the thing have? I can not see it as anything else but a compromise...

A "turn off" button would be perfect, and it would also be nice if this would be disabled by default so that the user can decide to if he wants it turned on or not, because a lot of users won't know that they can even turn this feature off if it's going to be implemented.

I will be curious to see if an explanation of the reason why this has been implemented is going to be written, I'm kind of thinking it will prove it won't be worth it.

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• Oct 21, 2011 - 19:55

"A "turn off" button would be perfect, and it would also be nice if this would be disabled by default so that the user can decide to if he wants it turned on or not, because a lot of users won't know that they can even turn this feature off if it's going to be implemented."

I agree about the option, but I will err on the side of caution and say it _must_ be enabled. I don't agree with all the design decisions in MS, but I live with them and will modify the preferences to suit my usage. Once users get comfortable with MS, they can and will do the same thing.

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• Oct 21, 2011 - 21:32

@Daniel Please read again : http://musescore.org/en/node/13222#comment-44919 It explains when this backup file is created.

This file is historical in MuseScore. It was there before the "continue session" facility. I wouldn't mind removing its creation. And another option is not good for me. There are already enough options in MuseScore :)

For Daniel, who wants to know what's going on on his computer :). "Continue session" is done if you select autosave in the preferences. The scores is saved in your AppData directory (on Windows) every X minutes. If MuseScore crashes, it asks you if you want to "continue the session" and open all the files that weere saved. It may be bad naming, but Autosave doesn't automatically save the file "in place", the file you create yourself.

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