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annotate runtime/doc/usr_11.txt @ 17854:9cd094b68fa5
Added tag v8.1.1923 for changeset c90ca5b9fc0dccb5845505f442b5adc42e62b480
| author | Bram Moolenaar <Bram@vim.org> |
|---|---|
| date | Sat, 24 Aug 2019 22:00:04 +0200 |
| parents | 4e9bea9b8025 |
| children | af69c9335223 |
| rev | line source |
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1 *usr_11.txt* For Vim version 8.1. Last change: 2019 Apr 28 |
| 7 | 2 |
| 3 VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar | |
| 4 | |
| 5 Recovering from a crash | |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 Did your computer crash? And you just spent hours editing? Don't panic! Vim | |
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9 stores enough information to be able to restore most of your work. This |
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10 chapter shows you how to get your work back and explains how the swap file is |
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11 used. |
| 7 | 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 | |
| 20 Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt| | |
| 21 | |
| 22 ============================================================================== | |
| 23 *11.1* Basic recovery | |
| 24 | |
| 25 In most cases recovering a file is quite simple, assuming you know which file | |
| 26 you were editing (and the harddisk is still working). Start Vim on the file, | |
| 27 with the "-r" argument added: > | |
| 28 | |
| 29 vim -r help.txt | |
| 30 | |
| 31 Vim will read the swap file (used to store text you were editing) and may read | |
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32 bits and pieces of the original file. If Vim recovered your changes you will |
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33 see these messages (with different file names, of course): |
| 7 | 34 |
| 35 Using swap file ".help.txt.swp" ~ | |
| 36 Original file "~/vim/runtime/doc/help.txt" ~ | |
| 323 | 37 Recovery completed. You should check if everything is OK. ~ |
| 7 | 38 (You might want to write out this file under another name ~ |
| 39 and run diff with the original file to check for changes) ~ | |
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40 You may want to delete the .swp file now. ~ |
| 7 | 41 |
| 42 To be on the safe side, write this file under another name: > | |
| 43 | |
| 44 :write help.txt.recovered | |
| 45 | |
| 46 Compare the file with the original file to check if you ended up with what you | |
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47 expected. Vimdiff is very useful for this |08.7|. For example: > |
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48 |
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49 :write help.txt.recovered |
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50 :edit # |
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51 :diffsp help.txt |
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52 |
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53 Watch out for the original file to contain a more recent version (you saved |
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54 the file just before the computer crashed). And check that no lines are |
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55 missing (something went wrong that Vim could not recover). |
| 7 | 56 If Vim produces warning messages when recovering, read them carefully. |
| 57 This is rare though. | |
| 58 | |
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59 If the recovery resulted in text that is exactly the same as the file |
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60 contents, you will get this message: |
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61 |
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62 Using swap file ".help.txt.swp" ~ |
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63 Original file "~/vim/runtime/doc/help.txt" ~ |
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64 Recovery completed. Buffer contents equals file contents. ~ |
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65 You may want to delete the .swp file now. ~ |
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66 |
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67 This usually happens if you already recovered your changes, or you wrote the |
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68 file after making changes. It is safe to delete the swap file now. |
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69 |
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70 It is normal that the last few changes can not be recovered. Vim flushes the |
| 7 | 71 changes to disk when you don't type for about four seconds, or after typing |
| 72 about 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 | |
| 74 the system went down, the changes after the last flush will be lost. | |
| 75 | |
| 76 If you were editing without a file name, give an empty string as argument: > | |
| 77 | |
| 78 vim -r "" | |
| 79 | |
| 80 You 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 | |
| 85 Vim can store the swap file in several places. Normally it is in the same | |
| 86 directory as the original file. To find it, change to the directory of the | |
| 87 file, and use: > | |
| 88 | |
| 89 vim -r | |
| 90 | |
| 91 Vim will list the swap files that it can find. It will also look in other | |
| 92 directories where the swap file for files in the current directory may be | |
| 93 located. It will not find swap files in any other directories though, it | |
| 94 doesn'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 | |
| 112 If there are several swap files that look like they may be the one you want to | |
| 113 use, a list is given of these swap files and you are requested to enter the | |
| 114 number of the one you want to use. Carefully look at the dates to decide | |
| 115 which one you want to use. | |
| 116 In case you don't know which one to use, just try them one by one and check | |
| 117 the resulting files if they are what you expected. | |
| 118 | |
| 119 | |
| 120 USING A SPECIFIC SWAP FILE | |
| 121 | |
| 122 If you know which swap file needs to be used, you can recover by giving the | |
| 15729 | 123 swap file name. Vim will then find out the name of the original file from |
| 7 | 124 the swap file. |
| 125 | |
| 126 Example: > | |
| 127 vim -r .help.txt.swo | |
| 128 | |
| 129 This is also handy when the swap file is in another directory than expected. | |
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130 Vim recognizes files with the pattern *.s[uvw][a-z] as swap files. |
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131 |
| 7 | 132 If this still does not work, see what file names Vim reports and rename the |
| 133 files accordingly. Check the 'directory' option to see where Vim may have | |
| 134 put 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 | |
| 147 Vim tries to protect you from doing stupid things. Suppose you innocently | |
| 148 start editing a file, expecting the contents of the file to show up. Instead, | |
| 149 Vim 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 | |
| 172 You get this message, because, when starting to edit a file, Vim checks if a | |
| 173 swap file already exists for that file. If there is one, there must be | |
| 174 something wrong. It may be one of these two situations. | |
| 175 | |
| 176 1. 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 | |
| 191 2. 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 | |
| 237 | 202 don't even need that old swap file). Vim will warn you for this with this |
| 7 | 203 extra line: |
| 204 | |
| 205 NEWER than swap file! ~ | |
| 206 | |
| 207 | |
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208 NOTE that in the following situation Vim knows the swap file is not useful and |
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209 will automatically delete it: |
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210 - The file is a valid swap file (Magic number is correct). |
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211 - The flag that the file was modified is not set. |
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212 - The process is not running. |
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213 |
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214 |
| 7 | 215 UNREADABLE SWAP FILE |
| 216 | |
| 217 Sometimes the line | |
| 218 | |
| 219 [cannot be read] ~ | |
| 220 | |
| 237 | 221 will appear under the name of the swap file. This can be good or bad, |
| 7 | 222 depending on circumstances. |
| 223 | |
| 224 It is good if a previous editing session crashed without having made any | |
| 237 | 225 changes to the file. Then a directory listing of the swap file will show |
| 226 that it has zero bytes. You may delete it and proceed. | |
| 7 | 227 |
| 237 | 228 It is slightly bad if you don't have read permission for the swap file. You |
| 229 may want to view the file read-only, or quit. On multi-user systems, if you | |
| 7 | 230 yourself did the last changes under a different login name, a logout |
| 237 | 231 followed by a login under that other name might cure the "read error". Or |
| 7 | 232 else you might want to find out who last edited (or is editing) the file and |
| 233 have a talk with them. | |
| 234 | |
| 235 It is very bad if it means there is a physical read error on the disk | |
| 236 containing the swap file. Fortunately, this almost never happens. | |
| 237 You may want to view the file read-only at first (if you can), to see the | |
| 238 extent of the changes that were "forgotten". If you are the one in charge of | |
| 239 that file, be prepared to redo your last changes. | |
| 240 | |
| 241 | |
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242 WHAT TO DO? *swap-exists-choices* |
| 7 | 243 |
| 13735 | 244 If dialogs are supported you will be asked to select one of six choices: |
| 7 | 245 |
| 246 Swap file ".main.c.swp" already exists! ~ | |
| 247 [O]pen Read-Only, (E)dit anyway, (R)ecover, (Q)uit, (A)bort, (D)elete it: ~ | |
| 248 | |
| 249 O Open the file readonly. Use this when you just want to view the file and | |
| 250 don't need to recover it. You might want to use this when you know someone | |
| 251 else is editing the file, but you just want to look in it and not make | |
| 252 changes. | |
| 253 | |
| 254 E Edit the file anyway. Use this with caution! If the file is being edited | |
| 255 in another Vim, you might end up with two versions of the file. Vim will | |
| 256 try to warn you when this happens, but better be safe then sorry. | |
| 257 | |
| 258 R Recover the file from the swap file. Use this if you know that the swap | |
| 259 file contains changes that you want to recover. | |
| 260 | |
| 261 Q Quit. This avoids starting to edit the file. Use this if there is another | |
| 262 Vim editing the same file. | |
| 263 When you just started Vim, this will exit Vim. When starting Vim with | |
| 264 files in several windows, Vim quits only if there is a swap file for the | |
| 265 first one. When using an edit command, the file will not be loaded and you | |
| 266 are taken back to the previously edited file. | |
| 267 | |
| 268 A Abort. Like Quit, but also abort further commands. This is useful when | |
| 269 loading a script that edits several files, such as a session with multiple | |
| 270 windows. | |
| 271 | |
| 272 D Delete the swap file. Use this when you are sure you no longer need it. | |
| 273 For example, when it doesn't contain changes, or when the file itself is | |
| 274 newer than the swap file. | |
| 275 On Unix this choice is only offered when the process that created the | |
| 276 swap file does not appear to be running. | |
| 277 | |
| 278 If you do not get the dialog (you are running a version of Vim that does not | |
| 279 support it), you will have to do it manually. To recover the file, use this | |
| 280 command: > | |
| 281 | |
| 282 :recover | |
| 283 | |
| 284 | |
| 285 Vim cannot always detect that a swap file already exists for a file. This is | |
| 286 the case when the other edit session puts the swap files in another directory | |
| 287 or when the path name for the file is different when editing it on different | |
| 288 machines. Therefore, don't rely on Vim always warning you. | |
| 289 | |
| 290 If you really don't want to see this message, you can add the 'A' flag to the | |
| 291 'shortmess' option. But it's very unusual that you need this. | |
| 292 | |
| 2267 | 293 For remarks about encryption and the swap file, see |:recover-crypt|. |
| 15878 | 294 For programatic access to the swap file, see |swapinfo()|. |
| 2267 | 295 |
| 7 | 296 ============================================================================== |
| 297 *11.4* Further reading | |
| 298 | |
| 299 |swap-file| An explanation about where the swap file will be created and | |
| 300 what its name is. | |
| 301 |:preserve| Manually flushing the swap file to disk. | |
| 302 |:swapname| See the name of the swap file for the current file. | |
| 303 'updatecount' Number of key strokes after which the swap file is flushed to | |
| 304 disk. | |
| 305 'updatetime' Timeout after which the swap file is flushed to disk. | |
| 306 'swapsync' Whether the disk is synced when the swap file is flushed. | |
| 307 'directory' List of directory names where to store the swap file. | |
| 308 'maxmem' Limit for memory usage before writing text to the swap file. | |
| 309 'maxmemtot' Same, but for all files in total. | |
| 310 | |
| 311 ============================================================================== | |
| 312 | |
| 313 Next chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks | |
| 314 | |
| 14519 | 315 Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl: |