How does a Person save a file from Cach Verifications?

[Ericmopar]

I keep hearing this argument that "All you have to do is rename the file" when I say cache verification wipes out mods.

A person can't just rename a file for audio or bins, without the program not being able to find it anymore...
Renaming a file will cause it to become invisible to an asset that needs that file.... IFAIK...

[Chacal]

Never heard anyone say that in that context.
You can rename a folder and Steam will reinstall a clean one, thrn you can copy the contents over the clean one, but that's different.

[Ericmopar]

Never heard anyone say that in that context.
You can rename a folder and Steam will reinstall a clean one, thrn you can copy the contents over the clean one, but that's different.

That's the way I understand it, although my choice is to keep backups of fixes and mods on a separate drive.

I'm puzzled by what I hear on other forums about this "rename your file to keep it safe from verification" .

It was an argument that got started, when someone I know had stated, that any expanded .ap files would get wiped during a verification, thus no point in doing that.
I stated that we lost our mods and had to reinstall them anyways, when we did a verification, even under the old file system.
That started the argument when my friend says "False" then explains that all you need to do is rename the modded file/s so they wouldn't get wiped during a cache verify.
I never have gotten an answer about how to do that either... As far as I know, a person makes backups and copies backups back into a verified cache.
If he is renaming files and folders in place and then letting Steam reinstall unmodded versions, that seems like a lot more work than what I do, which is copy mods back in from a backup of those fixes and or a backed up version of the entire railworks folder.

[wacampbell]

I assume you are running into this issue because you wish to hack a default RW file to some other version that you have modified. When you do a Cache Verification you are asking Steam to put all your files back to the defaults, ie find any incorrect files and restore them. So of course, your hacked file will be detected and removed.

Although you can change the name of the file, or put it in your own developer folder or other such solutions, these techniques all require changes to all the other files that link to it. Those other files must be told to use the version with the new name. But now those files will be subject to Cache Verification and the mods you make to them will be subject to removal. So no, renaming isn't a solution.

You are basically hacking a RW file, and then telling Steam to restore all hacked files to the defaults. Your only option is to save your hacks in a separate folder, and then copying them back in after your verification. I think there are some tools and batch files to help with this. But its not too hard to just have a separate image of your railworks folder that contains ONLY hacked files. After verification, drag it over the railworks install, select 'overwrite', and your hacks will be restored.

[peterhayes]

Eric
I think that they are saying in a roundabout way that you need to create a backup of any mod (as we did before) and restore them after the cache verification using something like Doc Lisboa's bat file or plain file merge.
The puzzling thing, wrt the new .ap file structure, is that it goes NOT appear to be the steam integrity verification that overwrites/removes these new modified files ie during a cache verification - AFAIK it does NOT remove them if they are outside the new .ap file structure, but it is the first time that you start TS2014 after the verification that the files disappear. I haven't seen this effect but it has been well described.
Regards
pH