307 lines
12 KiB
Text
307 lines
12 KiB
Text
*usr_11.txt* For Vim version 7.4. Last change: 2010 Jul 20
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VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
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Recovering from a crash
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Did your computer crash? And you just spent hours editing? Don't panic! Vim
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stores enough information to be able to restore most of your work. This
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chapter shows you how to get your work back and explains how the swap file is
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used.
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|11.1| Basic recovery
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|11.2| Where is the swap file?
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|11.3| Crashed or not?
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|11.4| Further reading
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Next chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
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Previous chapter: |usr_10.txt| Making big changes
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Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt|
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==============================================================================
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*11.1* Basic recovery
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In most cases recovering a file is quite simple, assuming you know which file
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you were editing (and the harddisk is still working). Start Vim on the file,
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with the "-r" argument added: >
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vim -r help.txt
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Vim will read the swap file (used to store text you were editing) and may read
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bits and pieces of the original file. If Vim recovered your changes you will
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see these messages (with different file names, of course):
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Using swap file ".help.txt.swp" ~
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Original file "~/vim/runtime/doc/help.txt" ~
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Recovery completed. You should check if everything is OK. ~
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(You might want to write out this file under another name ~
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and run diff with the original file to check for changes) ~
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You may want to delete the .swp file now. ~
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To be on the safe side, write this file under another name: >
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:write help.txt.recovered
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Compare the file with the original file to check if you ended up with what you
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expected. Vimdiff is very useful for this |08.7|. For example: >
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:write help.txt.recovered
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:edit #
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:diffsp help.txt
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Watch out for the original file to contain a more recent version (you saved
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the file just before the computer crashed). And check that no lines are
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missing (something went wrong that Vim could not recover).
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If Vim produces warning messages when recovering, read them carefully.
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This is rare though.
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If the recovery resulted in text that is exactly the same as the file
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contents, you will get this message:
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Using swap file ".help.txt.swp" ~
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Original file "~/vim/runtime/doc/help.txt" ~
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Recovery completed. Buffer contents equals file contents. ~
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You may want to delete the .swp file now. ~
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This usually happens if you already recovered your changes, or you wrote the
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file after making changes. It is safe to delete the swap file now.
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It is normal that the last few changes can not be recovered. Vim flushes the
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changes to disk when you don't type for about four seconds, or after typing
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about two hundred characters. This is set with the 'updatetime' and
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'updatecount' options. Thus when Vim didn't get a chance to save itself when
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the system went down, the changes after the last flush will be lost.
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If you were editing without a file name, give an empty string as argument: >
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vim -r ""
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You must be in the right directory, otherwise Vim can't find the swap file.
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==============================================================================
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*11.2* Where is the swap file?
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Vim can store the swap file in several places. Normally it is in the same
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directory as the original file. To find it, change to the directory of the
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file, and use: >
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vim -r
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Vim will list the swap files that it can find. It will also look in other
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directories where the swap file for files in the current directory may be
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located. It will not find swap files in any other directories though, it
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doesn't search the directory tree.
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The output could look like this:
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Swap files found: ~
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In current directory: ~
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1. .main.c.swp ~
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owned by: mool dated: Tue May 29 21:00:25 2001 ~
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file name: ~mool/vim/vim6/src/main.c ~
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modified: YES ~
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user name: mool host name: masaka.moolenaar.net ~
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process ID: 12525 ~
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In directory ~/tmp: ~
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-- none -- ~
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In directory /var/tmp: ~
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-- none -- ~
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In directory /tmp: ~
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-- none -- ~
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If there are several swap files that look like they may be the one you want to
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use, a list is given of these swap files and you are requested to enter the
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number of the one you want to use. Carefully look at the dates to decide
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which one you want to use.
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In case you don't know which one to use, just try them one by one and check
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the resulting files if they are what you expected.
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USING A SPECIFIC SWAP FILE
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If you know which swap file needs to be used, you can recover by giving the
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swap file name. Vim will then finds out the name of the original file from
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the swap file.
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Example: >
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vim -r .help.txt.swo
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This is also handy when the swap file is in another directory than expected.
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Vim recognizes files with the pattern *.s[uvw][a-z] as swap files.
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If this still does not work, see what file names Vim reports and rename the
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files accordingly. Check the 'directory' option to see where Vim may have
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put the swap file.
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Note:
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Vim tries to find the swap file by searching the directories in the
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'dir' option, looking for files that match "filename.sw?". If
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wildcard expansion doesn't work (e.g., when the 'shell' option is
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invalid), Vim does a desperate try to find the file "filename.swp".
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If that fails too, you will have to give the name of the swapfile
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itself to be able to recover the file.
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==============================================================================
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*11.3* Crashed or not? *ATTENTION* *E325*
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Vim tries to protect you from doing stupid things. Suppose you innocently
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start editing a file, expecting the contents of the file to show up. Instead,
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Vim produces a very long message:
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E325: ATTENTION ~
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Found a swap file by the name ".main.c.swp" ~
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owned by: mool dated: Tue May 29 21:09:28 2001 ~
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file name: ~mool/vim/vim6/src/main.c ~
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modified: no ~
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user name: mool host name: masaka.moolenaar.net ~
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process ID: 12559 (still running) ~
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While opening file "main.c" ~
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dated: Tue May 29 19:46:12 2001 ~
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~
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(1) Another program may be editing the same file. ~
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If this is the case, be careful not to end up with two ~
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different instances of the same file when making changes. ~
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Quit, or continue with caution. ~
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~
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(2) An edit session for this file crashed. ~
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If this is the case, use ":recover" or "vim -r main.c" ~
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to recover the changes (see ":help recovery"). ~
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If you did this already, delete the swap file ".main.c.swp" ~
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to avoid this message. ~
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You get this message, because, when starting to edit a file, Vim checks if a
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swap file already exists for that file. If there is one, there must be
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something wrong. It may be one of these two situations.
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1. Another edit session is active on this file. Look in the message for the
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line with "process ID". It might look like this:
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process ID: 12559 (still running) ~
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The text "(still running)" indicates that the process editing this file
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runs on the same computer. When working on a non-Unix system you will not
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get this extra hint. When editing a file over a network, you may not see
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the hint, because the process might be running on another computer. In
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those two cases you must find out what the situation is yourself.
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If there is another Vim editing the same file, continuing to edit will
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result in two versions of the same file. The one that is written last will
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overwrite the other one, resulting in loss of changes. You better quit
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this Vim.
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2. The swap file might be the result from a previous crash of Vim or the
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computer. Check the dates mentioned in the message. If the date of the
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swap file is newer than the file you were editing, and this line appears:
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modified: YES ~
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Then you very likely have a crashed edit session that is worth recovering.
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If the date of the file is newer than the date of the swap file, then
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either it was changed after the crash (perhaps you recovered it earlier,
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but didn't delete the swap file?), or else the file was saved before the
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crash but after the last write of the swap file (then you're lucky: you
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don't even need that old swap file). Vim will warn you for this with this
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extra line:
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NEWER than swap file! ~
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UNREADABLE SWAP FILE
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Sometimes the line
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[cannot be read] ~
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will appear under the name of the swap file. This can be good or bad,
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depending on circumstances.
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It is good if a previous editing session crashed without having made any
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changes to the file. Then a directory listing of the swap file will show
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that it has zero bytes. You may delete it and proceed.
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It is slightly bad if you don't have read permission for the swap file. You
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may want to view the file read-only, or quit. On multi-user systems, if you
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yourself did the last changes under a different login name, a logout
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followed by a login under that other name might cure the "read error". Or
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else you might want to find out who last edited (or is editing) the file and
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have a talk with them.
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It is very bad if it means there is a physical read error on the disk
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containing the swap file. Fortunately, this almost never happens.
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You may want to view the file read-only at first (if you can), to see the
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extent of the changes that were "forgotten". If you are the one in charge of
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that file, be prepared to redo your last changes.
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WHAT TO DO? *swap-exists-choices*
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If dialogs are supported you will be asked to select one of five choices:
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Swap file ".main.c.swp" already exists! ~
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[O]pen Read-Only, (E)dit anyway, (R)ecover, (Q)uit, (A)bort, (D)elete it: ~
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O Open the file readonly. Use this when you just want to view the file and
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don't need to recover it. You might want to use this when you know someone
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else is editing the file, but you just want to look in it and not make
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changes.
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E Edit the file anyway. Use this with caution! If the file is being edited
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in another Vim, you might end up with two versions of the file. Vim will
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try to warn you when this happens, but better be safe then sorry.
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R Recover the file from the swap file. Use this if you know that the swap
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file contains changes that you want to recover.
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Q Quit. This avoids starting to edit the file. Use this if there is another
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Vim editing the same file.
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When you just started Vim, this will exit Vim. When starting Vim with
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files in several windows, Vim quits only if there is a swap file for the
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first one. When using an edit command, the file will not be loaded and you
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are taken back to the previously edited file.
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A Abort. Like Quit, but also abort further commands. This is useful when
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loading a script that edits several files, such as a session with multiple
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windows.
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D Delete the swap file. Use this when you are sure you no longer need it.
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For example, when it doesn't contain changes, or when the file itself is
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newer than the swap file.
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On Unix this choice is only offered when the process that created the
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swap file does not appear to be running.
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If you do not get the dialog (you are running a version of Vim that does not
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support it), you will have to do it manually. To recover the file, use this
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command: >
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:recover
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Vim cannot always detect that a swap file already exists for a file. This is
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the case when the other edit session puts the swap files in another directory
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or when the path name for the file is different when editing it on different
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machines. Therefore, don't rely on Vim always warning you.
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If you really don't want to see this message, you can add the 'A' flag to the
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'shortmess' option. But it's very unusual that you need this.
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For remarks about encryption and the swap file, see |:recover-crypt|.
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==============================================================================
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*11.4* Further reading
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|swap-file| An explanation about where the swap file will be created and
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what its name is.
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|:preserve| Manually flushing the swap file to disk.
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|:swapname| See the name of the swap file for the current file.
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'updatecount' Number of key strokes after which the swap file is flushed to
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disk.
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'updatetime' Timeout after which the swap file is flushed to disk.
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'swapsync' Whether the disk is synced when the swap file is flushed.
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'directory' List of directory names where to store the swap file.
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'maxmem' Limit for memory usage before writing text to the swap file.
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'maxmemtot' Same, but for all files in total.
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==============================================================================
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Next chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
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Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl:
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