Getting the Most Out of QGIS and GRASS Integration - Desktop GIS: Mapping the Planet with Open Source Tools - page 210

The next tool is Copy selected map , which allows you to copy the cur-
rently selected map into the current mapset. There are a number of
reasons why you might want to copy a map. A typical case is when you
are about to do some fancy (read: dangerous) conversion or edit—you
might want to make a copy in case things go bad. When you click Copy
selected map , you are prompted for a name for the new map. Give it a
name, and click OK to create the new map. Note that in order for this to
work, you have to highlight a map in the browser list—the copy won't
work on a layer of a map.
The Rename selected map tool allows you to rename a map. This can
come in handy when doing a risky edit operation. Before you begin,
make a copy of your map. If things go badly during the edit operation,
you can just delete the original map that is now fouled up and rename
the copy to the original, so you can try again. Don't forget to make
another clean copy at this point. When naming or renaming a map,
you're not allowed to enter spaces since they are not valid in a GRASS
map name—don't think that your spacebar is broken.
The red button with the big X in the middle is the Delete selected map
tool. Use this one with caution, because once it's gone, it's gone. Fortu-
nately, you have to confirm the delete operation, giving you a chance to
change your mind. When you delete a map, it is removed from the list
of maps in the browser. Interestingly enough, if it happens to be on the
QGIS map canvas, it isn't removed, and you can still identify features
and view the attribute table. If you try to edit it, the operation will fail
since the underlying data structures have been removed.
There are two other buttons on the toolbar. The first allows you to set
the GRASS region to the currently selected map. This information is
saved, and the next time you run GRASS, the region will be restored.
Unlike a lot of file system browsers, the GRASS browser doesn't con-
tinuously poll or receive notification when the contents of your mapset
has changed. The remaining button allows you to refresh the browser
contents when you have added new maps or layers and want to view
their information in the browser.
Now that we have a handle on the browser, we'll move on to looking at
some of the basic modules. The browser will come in handy later when
we need to view or manage some of the output maps from our analysis
and conversion activities.