It is recommended that you use the mode magit-wip-mode (which see) and
ignore the existence of the following modes, which are preserved for
historic reasons.
Setting the following variables directly does not take effect; either use the Custom interface to do so or call the respective mode functions.
When this mode is enabled, then saving a buffer that visits a file tracked in a Git repository causes its current state to be committed to the working tree wip ref for the current branch.
When this mode is enabled, then applying (i.e. staging, unstaging, discarding, reversing, and regularly applying) a change to a file tracked in a Git repository causes its current state to be committed to the index and/or working tree wip refs for the current branch.
If you only ever edit files using Emacs and only ever interact with Git using Magit, then the above two modes should be enough to protect each and every change from accidental loss. In practice nobody does that. Two additional modes exists that do commit to the wip refs before making changes that could cause the loss of earlier changes.
When this mode is enabled, then certain commands commit the existing changes to the files they are about to make changes to.
When this mode is enabled, then the current version of a file is committed to the worktree wip ref before the buffer visiting that file is saved for the first time since the buffer was created.
This backs up the same version of the file that backup-buffer would
save. While backup-buffer uses a backup file, this mode uses the
same worktree wip ref as used by the other Magit Wip modes. Like
backup-buffer, it only does this once; unless you kill the buffer
and visit the file again only one backup will be created per Emacs
session.
This mode ignores the variables that affect backup-buffer and can be
used along-side that function, which is recommended because it only
backs up files that are tracked in a Git repository.
Mode-line lighter for magit-wip-after-save-local-mode.
Mode-line lighter for magit-wip-after-apply-mode.
Mode-line lighter for magit-wip-before-change-mode.
Mode-line lighter for magit-wip-initial-backup-mode.