1*usr_11.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20 2 3 VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar 4 5 Recovering from a crash 6 7 8Did your computer crash? And you just spent hours editing? Don't panic! Vim 9stores enough information to be able to restore most of your work. This 10chapter shows you how to get your work back and explains how the swap file is 11used. 12 13|11.1| Basic recovery 14|11.2| Where is the swap file? 15|11.3| Crashed or not? 16|11.4| Further reading 17 18 Next chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks 19 Previous chapter: |usr_10.txt| Making big changes 20Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt| 21 22============================================================================== 23*11.1* Basic recovery 24 25In most cases recovering a file is quite simple, assuming you know which file 26you were editing (and the harddisk is still working). Start Vim on the file, 27with the "-r" argument added: > 28 29 vim -r help.txt 30 31Vim will read the swap file (used to store text you were editing) and may read 32bits and pieces of the original file. If Vim recovered your changes you will 33see these messages (with different file names, of course): 34 35 Using swap file ".help.txt.swp" ~ 36 Original file "~/vim/runtime/doc/help.txt" ~ 37 Recovery completed. You should check if everything is OK. ~ 38 (You might want to write out this file under another name ~ 39 and run diff with the original file to check for changes) ~ 40 You may want to delete the .swp file now. ~ 41 42To be on the safe side, write this file under another name: > 43 44 :write help.txt.recovered 45 46Compare the file with the original file to check if you ended up with what you 47expected. Vimdiff is very useful for this |08.7|. For example: > 48 49 :write help.txt.recovered 50 :edit # 51 :diffsp help.txt 52 53Watch out for the original file to contain a more recent version (you saved 54the file just before the computer crashed). And check that no lines are 55missing (something went wrong that Vim could not recover). 56 If Vim produces warning messages when recovering, read them carefully. 57This is rare though. 58 59If the recovery resulted in text that is exactly the same as the file 60contents, you will get this message: 61 62 Using swap file ".help.txt.swp" ~ 63 Original file "~/vim/runtime/doc/help.txt" ~ 64 Recovery completed. Buffer contents equals file contents. ~ 65 You may want to delete the .swp file now. ~ 66 67This usually happens if you already recovered your changes, or you wrote the 68file after making changes. It is safe to delete the swap file now. 69 70It is normal that the last few changes can not be recovered. Vim flushes the 71changes to disk when you don't type for about four seconds, or after typing 72about two hundred characters. This is set with the 'updatetime' and 73'updatecount' options. Thus when Vim didn't get a chance to save itself when 74the system went down, the changes after the last flush will be lost. 75 76If you were editing without a file name, give an empty string as argument: > 77 78 vim -r "" 79 80You must be in the right directory, otherwise Vim can't find the swap file. 81 82============================================================================== 83*11.2* Where is the swap file? 84 85Vim can store the swap file in several places. Normally it is in the same 86directory as the original file. To find it, change to the directory of the 87file, and use: > 88 89 vim -r 90 91Vim will list the swap files that it can find. It will also look in other 92directories where the swap file for files in the current directory may be 93located. It will not find swap files in any other directories though, it 94doesn't search the directory tree. 95 The output could look like this: 96 97 Swap files found: ~ 98 In current directory: ~ 99 1. .main.c.swp ~ 100 owned by: mool dated: Tue May 29 21:00:25 2001 ~ 101 file name: ~mool/vim/vim6/src/main.c ~ 102 modified: YES ~ 103 user name: mool host name: masaka.moolenaar.net ~ 104 process ID: 12525 ~ 105 In directory ~/tmp: ~ 106 -- none -- ~ 107 In directory /var/tmp: ~ 108 -- none -- ~ 109 In directory /tmp: ~ 110 -- none -- ~ 111 112If there are several swap files that look like they may be the one you want to 113use, a list is given of these swap files and you are requested to enter the 114number of the one you want to use. Carefully look at the dates to decide 115which one you want to use. 116 In case you don't know which one to use, just try them one by one and check 117the resulting files if they are what you expected. 118 119 120USING A SPECIFIC SWAP FILE 121 122If you know which swap file needs to be used, you can recover by giving the 123swap file name. Vim will then finds out the name of the original file from 124the swap file. 125 126Example: > 127 vim -r .help.txt.swo 128 129This is also handy when the swap file is in another directory than expected. 130Vim recognizes files with the pattern *.s[uvw][a-z] as swap files. 131 132If this still does not work, see what file names Vim reports and rename the 133files accordingly. Check the 'directory' option to see where Vim may have 134put the swap file. 135 136 Note: 137 Vim tries to find the swap file by searching the directories in the 138 'dir' option, looking for files that match "filename.sw?". If 139 wildcard expansion doesn't work (e.g., when the 'shell' option is 140 invalid), Vim does a desperate try to find the file "filename.swp". 141 If that fails too, you will have to give the name of the swapfile 142 itself to be able to recover the file. 143 144============================================================================== 145*11.3* Crashed or not? *ATTENTION* *E325* 146 147Vim tries to protect you from doing stupid things. Suppose you innocently 148start editing a file, expecting the contents of the file to show up. Instead, 149Vim produces a very long message: 150 151 E325: ATTENTION ~ 152 Found a swap file by the name ".main.c.swp" ~ 153 owned by: mool dated: Tue May 29 21:09:28 2001 ~ 154 file name: ~mool/vim/vim6/src/main.c ~ 155 modified: no ~ 156 user name: mool host name: masaka.moolenaar.net ~ 157 process ID: 12559 (still running) ~ 158 While opening file "main.c" ~ 159 dated: Tue May 29 19:46:12 2001 ~ 160 ~ 161 (1) Another program may be editing the same file. ~ 162 If this is the case, be careful not to end up with two ~ 163 different instances of the same file when making changes. ~ 164 Quit, or continue with caution. ~ 165 ~ 166 (2) An edit session for this file crashed. ~ 167 If this is the case, use ":recover" or "vim -r main.c" ~ 168 to recover the changes (see ":help recovery"). ~ 169 If you did this already, delete the swap file ".main.c.swp" ~ 170 to avoid this message. ~ 171 172You get this message, because, when starting to edit a file, Vim checks if a 173swap file already exists for that file. If there is one, there must be 174something wrong. It may be one of these two situations. 175 1761. Another edit session is active on this file. Look in the message for the 177 line with "process ID". It might look like this: 178 179 process ID: 12559 (still running) ~ 180 181 The text "(still running)" indicates that the process editing this file 182 runs on the same computer. When working on a non-Unix system you will not 183 get this extra hint. When editing a file over a network, you may not see 184 the hint, because the process might be running on another computer. In 185 those two cases you must find out what the situation is yourself. 186 If there is another Vim editing the same file, continuing to edit will 187 result in two versions of the same file. The one that is written last will 188 overwrite the other one, resulting in loss of changes. You better quit 189 this Vim. 190 1912. The swap file might be the result from a previous crash of Vim or the 192 computer. Check the dates mentioned in the message. If the date of the 193 swap file is newer than the file you were editing, and this line appears: 194 195 modified: YES ~ 196 197 Then you very likely have a crashed edit session that is worth recovering. 198 If the date of the file is newer than the date of the swap file, then 199 either it was changed after the crash (perhaps you recovered it earlier, 200 but didn't delete the swap file?), or else the file was saved before the 201 crash but after the last write of the swap file (then you're lucky: you 202 don't even need that old swap file). Vim will warn you for this with this 203 extra line: 204 205 NEWER than swap file! ~ 206 207 208UNREADABLE SWAP FILE 209 210Sometimes the line 211 212 [cannot be read] ~ 213 214will appear under the name of the swap file. This can be good or bad, 215depending on circumstances. 216 217It is good if a previous editing session crashed without having made any 218changes to the file. Then a directory listing of the swap file will show 219that it has zero bytes. You may delete it and proceed. 220 221It is slightly bad if you don't have read permission for the swap file. You 222may want to view the file read-only, or quit. On multi-user systems, if you 223yourself did the last changes under a different login name, a logout 224followed by a login under that other name might cure the "read error". Or 225else you might want to find out who last edited (or is editing) the file and 226have a talk with them. 227 228It is very bad if it means there is a physical read error on the disk 229containing the swap file. Fortunately, this almost never happens. 230You may want to view the file read-only at first (if you can), to see the 231extent of the changes that were "forgotten". If you are the one in charge of 232that file, be prepared to redo your last changes. 233 234 235WHAT TO DO? *swap-exists-choices* 236 237If dialogs are supported you will be asked to select one of five choices: 238 239 Swap file ".main.c.swp" already exists! ~ 240 [O]pen Read-Only, (E)dit anyway, (R)ecover, (Q)uit, (A)bort, (D)elete it: ~ 241 242O Open the file readonly. Use this when you just want to view the file and 243 don't need to recover it. You might want to use this when you know someone 244 else is editing the file, but you just want to look in it and not make 245 changes. 246 247E Edit the file anyway. Use this with caution! If the file is being edited 248 in another Vim, you might end up with two versions of the file. Vim will 249 try to warn you when this happens, but better be safe then sorry. 250 251R Recover the file from the swap file. Use this if you know that the swap 252 file contains changes that you want to recover. 253 254Q Quit. This avoids starting to edit the file. Use this if there is another 255 Vim editing the same file. 256 When you just started Vim, this will exit Vim. When starting Vim with 257 files in several windows, Vim quits only if there is a swap file for the 258 first one. When using an edit command, the file will not be loaded and you 259 are taken back to the previously edited file. 260 261A Abort. Like Quit, but also abort further commands. This is useful when 262 loading a script that edits several files, such as a session with multiple 263 windows. 264 265D Delete the swap file. Use this when you are sure you no longer need it. 266 For example, when it doesn't contain changes, or when the file itself is 267 newer than the swap file. 268 On Unix this choice is only offered when the process that created the 269 swap file does not appear to be running. 270 271If you do not get the dialog (you are running a version of Vim that does not 272support it), you will have to do it manually. To recover the file, use this 273command: > 274 275 :recover 276 277 278Vim cannot always detect that a swap file already exists for a file. This is 279the case when the other edit session puts the swap files in another directory 280or when the path name for the file is different when editing it on different 281machines. Therefore, don't rely on Vim always warning you. 282 283If you really don't want to see this message, you can add the 'A' flag to the 284'shortmess' option. But it's very unusual that you need this. 285 286For remarks about encryption and the swap file, see |:recover-crypt|. 287 288============================================================================== 289*11.4* Further reading 290 291|swap-file| An explanation about where the swap file will be created and 292 what its name is. 293|:preserve| Manually flushing the swap file to disk. 294|:swapname| See the name of the swap file for the current file. 295'updatecount' Number of key strokes after which the swap file is flushed to 296 disk. 297'updatetime' Timeout after which the swap file is flushed to disk. 298'swapsync' Whether the disk is synced when the swap file is flushed. 299'directory' List of directory names where to store the swap file. 300'maxmem' Limit for memory usage before writing text to the swap file. 301'maxmemtot' Same, but for all files in total. 302 303============================================================================== 304 305Next chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks 306 307Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: 308