Preventing overwriting of files when using save() or save.image()

file, r

Solution

Use `file.exists()` to test if the file is there, and if it is, append a string to the name.

Edit:

Thanks Marek, I'll expand on your idea a bit... he could add this to deal with both `save()` and `save.image()`

SafeSave <- function( ..., file=stop("'file' must be specified"), overwrite=FALSE, save.fun=save) {
  if ( file.exists(file) & !overwrite ) stop("'file' already exists")
  save.fun(..., file=file)
}

I would not overwrite save... if `source()` was used in a REPL session, users may not be aware of the function overwrite.

Problem

Original source