In ~/.emacs

(setq make-backup-files nil)
(setq backup-inhibited t)

At the prompt:

[bobbojones@desktop html]$ ls -l contact-public.html*
-rw-rw-rw- 1 5 bjones 1432 Jun 4 09:05 contact-public.html
-rw-rw-rw- 1 5 bjones 1432 May 6 13:46 contact-public.html.~1.1.1.1.~

That’s right, emacs is making backup files despite me explicitly asking it not to. What really bothers me, though, is that it’s only doing it for files that were checked out of CVS. They’re in CVS! The sole purpose of CVS is to make sure I can get copies of the old files if I need to!

What possible purpose can emacs have for overriding every known “stop with the smegging backups” directive when in CVS mode? Does it really think it’s being in any way helpful?

Update: The trick is to (setq vc-cvs-stay-local nil)