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1 *usr_11.txt* For Vim version 7.3. Last change: 2010 Jul 20
3 VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
5 Recovering from a crash
8 Did your computer crash? And you just spent hours editing? Don't panic! Vim
9 stores enough information to be able to restore most of your work. This
10 chapter shows you how to get your work back and explains how the swap file is
11 used.
13 |11.1| Basic recovery
14 |11.2| Where is the swap file?
15 |11.3| Crashed or not?
16 |11.4| Further reading
18 Next chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
19 Previous chapter: |usr_10.txt| Making big changes
20 Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt|
22 ==============================================================================
23 *11.1* Basic recovery
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: >
29 vim -r help.txt
31 Vim will read the swap file (used to store text you were editing) and may read
32 bits and pieces of the original file. If Vim recovered your changes you will
33 see these messages (with different file names, of course):
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. ~
42 To be on the safe side, write this file under another name: >
44 :write help.txt.recovered
46 Compare the file with the original file to check if you ended up with what you
47 expected. Vimdiff is very useful for this |08.7|. For example: >
49 :write help.txt.recovered
50 :edit #
51 :diffsp help.txt
53 Watch out for the original file to contain a more recent version (you saved
54 the file just before the computer crashed). And check that no lines are
55 missing (something went wrong that Vim could not recover).
56 If Vim produces warning messages when recovering, read them carefully.
57 This is rare though.
59 If the recovery resulted in text that is exactly the same as the file
60 contents, you will get this message:
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. ~
67 This usually happens if you already recovered your changes, or you wrote the
68 file after making changes. It is safe to delete the swap file now.
70 It is normal that the last few changes can not be recovered. Vim flushes the
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.
76 If you were editing without a file name, give an empty string as argument: >
78 vim -r ""
80 You must be in the right directory, otherwise Vim can't find the swap file.
82 ==============================================================================
83 *11.2* Where is the swap file?
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: >
89 vim -r
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:
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 -- ~
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.
120 USING A SPECIFIC SWAP FILE
122 If you know which swap file needs to be used, you can recover by giving the
123 swap file name. Vim will then finds out the name of the original file from
124 the swap file.
126 Example: >
127 vim -r .help.txt.swo
129 This is also handy when the swap file is in another directory than expected.
130 Vim recognizes files with the pattern *.s[uvw][a-z] as swap files.
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.
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.
144 ==============================================================================
145 *11.3* Crashed or not? *ATTENTION* *E325*
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:
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. ~
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.
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:
179 process ID: 12559 (still running) ~
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.
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:
195 modified: YES ~
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:
205 NEWER than swap file! ~
208 UNREADABLE SWAP FILE
210 Sometimes the line
212 [cannot be read] ~
214 will appear under the name of the swap file. This can be good or bad,
215 depending on circumstances.
217 It is good if a previous editing session crashed without having made any
218 changes to the file. Then a directory listing of the swap file will show
219 that it has zero bytes. You may delete it and proceed.
221 It is slightly bad if you don't have read permission for the swap file. You
222 may want to view the file read-only, or quit. On multi-user systems, if you
223 yourself did the last changes under a different login name, a logout
224 followed by a login under that other name might cure the "read error". Or
225 else you might want to find out who last edited (or is editing) the file and
226 have a talk with them.
228 It is very bad if it means there is a physical read error on the disk
229 containing the swap file. Fortunately, this almost never happens.
230 You may want to view the file read-only at first (if you can), to see the
231 extent of the changes that were "forgotten". If you are the one in charge of
232 that file, be prepared to redo your last changes.
235 WHAT TO DO? *swap-exists-choices*
237 If dialogs are supported you will be asked to select one of five choices:
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: ~
242 O 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.
247 E 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.
251 R Recover the file from the swap file. Use this if you know that the swap
252 file contains changes that you want to recover.
254 Q 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.
261 A 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.
265 D 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.
271 If you do not get the dialog (you are running a version of Vim that does not
272 support it), you will have to do it manually. To recover the file, use this
273 command: >
275 :recover
278 Vim cannot always detect that a swap file already exists for a file. This is
279 the case when the other edit session puts the swap files in another directory
280 or when the path name for the file is different when editing it on different
281 machines. Therefore, don't rely on Vim always warning you.
283 If 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.
286 For remarks about encryption and the swap file, see |:recover-crypt|.
288 ==============================================================================
289 *11.4* Further reading
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.
303 ==============================================================================
305 Next chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
307 Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: