Mercurial > hg > RemoteEditor > vim7

comparison runtime/doc/usr_11.txt @ 0:76efa0be13f1

Find changesets by keywords (author, files, the commit message), revision number or hash, or revset expression.
Initial revision
author atsuki
date Sat, 10 Nov 2007 15:07:22 +0900
parents
children e170173ecb68
comparison
equal deleted inserted replaced
-1:000000000000 0:76efa0be13f1
1 *usr_11.txt* For Vim version 7.1. Last change: 2006 Apr 24
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
9 keeps enough information on harddisk to be able to restore most of your work.
10 This chapter shows you how to get your work back and explains how the swap
11 file is used.
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
32 bits and pieces of the original file. If all is well, you will see these
33 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 Delete the .swp file afterwards. ~
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
47 expected. Vimdiff is very useful for this |08.7|. Watch out for the original
48 file to contain a more recent version (you saved the file just before the
49 computer crashed). And check that no lines are missing (something went wrong
50 that Vim could not recover).
51 If Vim produces warning messages when recovering, read them carefully.
52 This is rare though.
53
54 It's normal that the last few changes can not be recovered. Vim flushes the
55 changes to disk when you don't type for about four seconds, or after typing
56 about two hundred characters. This is set with the 'updatetime' and
57 'updatecount' options. Thus when Vim didn't get a chance to save itself when
58 the system went down, the changes after the last flush will be lost.
59
60 If you were editing without a file name, give an empty string as argument: >
61
62 vim -r ""
63
64 You must be in the right directory, otherwise Vim can't find the swap file.
65
66 ==============================================================================
67 *11.2* Where is the swap file?
68
69 Vim can store the swap file in several places. Normally it is in the same
70 directory as the original file. To find it, change to the directory of the
71 file, and use: >
72
73 vim -r
74
75 Vim will list the swap files that it can find. It will also look in other
76 directories where the swap file for files in the current directory may be
77 located. It will not find swap files in any other directories though, it
78 doesn't search the directory tree.
79 The output could look like this:
80
81 Swap files found: ~
82 In current directory: ~
83 1. .main.c.swp ~
84 owned by: mool dated: Tue May 29 21:00:25 2001 ~
85 file name: ~mool/vim/vim6/src/main.c ~
86 modified: YES ~
87 user name: mool host name: masaka.moolenaar.net ~
88 process ID: 12525 ~
89 In directory ~/tmp: ~
90 -- none -- ~
91 In directory /var/tmp: ~
92 -- none -- ~
93 In directory /tmp: ~
94 -- none -- ~
95
96 If there are several swap files that look like they may be the one you want to
97 use, a list is given of these swap files and you are requested to enter the
98 number of the one you want to use. Carefully look at the dates to decide
99 which one you want to use.
100 In case you don't know which one to use, just try them one by one and check
101 the resulting files if they are what you expected.
102
103
104 USING A SPECIFIC SWAP FILE
105
106 If you know which swap file needs to be used, you can recover by giving the
107 swap file name. Vim will then finds out the name of the original file from
108 the swap file.
109
110 Example: >
111 vim -r .help.txt.swo
112
113 This is also handy when the swap file is in another directory than expected.
114 If this still does not work, see what file names Vim reports and rename the
115 files accordingly. Check the 'directory' option to see where Vim may have
116 put the swap file.
117
118 Note:
119 Vim tries to find the swap file by searching the directories in the
120 'dir' option, looking for files that match "filename.sw?". If
121 wildcard expansion doesn't work (e.g., when the 'shell' option is
122 invalid), Vim does a desperate try to find the file "filename.swp".
123 If that fails too, you will have to give the name of the swapfile
124 itself to be able to recover the file.
125
126 ==============================================================================
127 *11.3* Crashed or not? *ATTENTION* *E325*
128
129 Vim tries to protect you from doing stupid things. Suppose you innocently
130 start editing a file, expecting the contents of the file to show up. Instead,
131 Vim produces a very long message:
132
133 E325: ATTENTION ~
134 Found a swap file by the name ".main.c.swp" ~
135 owned by: mool dated: Tue May 29 21:09:28 2001 ~
136 file name: ~mool/vim/vim6/src/main.c ~
137 modified: no ~
138 user name: mool host name: masaka.moolenaar.net ~
139 process ID: 12559 (still running) ~
140 While opening file "main.c" ~
141 dated: Tue May 29 19:46:12 2001 ~
142 ~
143 (1) Another program may be editing the same file. ~
144 If this is the case, be careful not to end up with two ~
145 different instances of the same file when making changes. ~
146 Quit, or continue with caution. ~
147 ~
148 (2) An edit session for this file crashed. ~
149 If this is the case, use ":recover" or "vim -r main.c" ~
150 to recover the changes (see ":help recovery"). ~
151 If you did this already, delete the swap file ".main.c.swp" ~
152 to avoid this message. ~
153
154 You get this message, because, when starting to edit a file, Vim checks if a
155 swap file already exists for that file. If there is one, there must be
156 something wrong. It may be one of these two situations.
157
158 1. Another edit session is active on this file. Look in the message for the
159 line with "process ID". It might look like this:
160
161 process ID: 12559 (still running) ~
162
163 The text "(still running)" indicates that the process editing this file
164 runs on the same computer. When working on a non-Unix system you will not
165 get this extra hint. When editing a file over a network, you may not see
166 the hint, because the process might be running on another computer. In
167 those two cases you must find out what the situation is yourself.
168 If there is another Vim editing the same file, continuing to edit will
169 result in two versions of the same file. The one that is written last will
170 overwrite the other one, resulting in loss of changes. You better quit
171 this Vim.
172
173 2. The swap file might be the result from a previous crash of Vim or the
174 computer. Check the dates mentioned in the message. If the date of the
175 swap file is newer than the file you were editing, and this line appears:
176
177 modified: YES ~
178
179 Then you very likely have a crashed edit session that is worth recovering.
180 If the date of the file is newer than the date of the swap file, then
181 either it was changed after the crash (perhaps you recovered it earlier,
182 but didn't delete the swap file?), or else the file was saved before the
183 crash but after the last write of the swap file (then you're lucky: you
184 don't even need that old swap file). Vim will warn you for this with this
185 extra line:
186
187 NEWER than swap file! ~
188
189
190 UNREADABLE SWAP FILE
191
192 Sometimes the line
193
194 [cannot be read] ~
195
196 will appear under the name of the swap file. This can be good or bad,
197 depending on circumstances.
198
199 It is good if a previous editing session crashed without having made any
200 changes to the file. Then a directory listing of the swap file will show
201 that it has zero bytes. You may delete it and proceed.
202
203 It is slightly bad if you don't have read permission for the swap file. You
204 may want to view the file read-only, or quit. On multi-user systems, if you
205 yourself did the last changes under a different login name, a logout
206 followed by a login under that other name might cure the "read error". Or
207 else you might want to find out who last edited (or is editing) the file and
208 have a talk with them.
209
210 It is very bad if it means there is a physical read error on the disk
211 containing the swap file. Fortunately, this almost never happens.
212 You may want to view the file read-only at first (if you can), to see the
213 extent of the changes that were "forgotten". If you are the one in charge of
214 that file, be prepared to redo your last changes.
215
216
217 WHAT TO DO?
218
219 If dialogs are supported you will be asked to select one of five choices:
220
221 Swap file ".main.c.swp" already exists! ~
222 [O]pen Read-Only, (E)dit anyway, (R)ecover, (Q)uit, (A)bort, (D)elete it: ~
223
224 O Open the file readonly. Use this when you just want to view the file and
225 don't need to recover it. You might want to use this when you know someone
226 else is editing the file, but you just want to look in it and not make
227 changes.
228
229 E Edit the file anyway. Use this with caution! If the file is being edited
230 in another Vim, you might end up with two versions of the file. Vim will
231 try to warn you when this happens, but better be safe then sorry.
232
233 R Recover the file from the swap file. Use this if you know that the swap
234 file contains changes that you want to recover.
235
236 Q Quit. This avoids starting to edit the file. Use this if there is another
237 Vim editing the same file.
238 When you just started Vim, this will exit Vim. When starting Vim with
239 files in several windows, Vim quits only if there is a swap file for the
240 first one. When using an edit command, the file will not be loaded and you
241 are taken back to the previously edited file.
242
243 A Abort. Like Quit, but also abort further commands. This is useful when
244 loading a script that edits several files, such as a session with multiple
245 windows.
246
247 D Delete the swap file. Use this when you are sure you no longer need it.
248 For example, when it doesn't contain changes, or when the file itself is
249 newer than the swap file.
250 On Unix this choice is only offered when the process that created the
251 swap file does not appear to be running.
252
253 If you do not get the dialog (you are running a version of Vim that does not
254 support it), you will have to do it manually. To recover the file, use this
255 command: >
256
257 :recover
258
259
260 Vim cannot always detect that a swap file already exists for a file. This is
261 the case when the other edit session puts the swap files in another directory
262 or when the path name for the file is different when editing it on different
263 machines. Therefore, don't rely on Vim always warning you.
264
265 If you really don't want to see this message, you can add the 'A' flag to the
266 'shortmess' option. But it's very unusual that you need this.
267
268 ==============================================================================
269 *11.4* Further reading
270
271 |swap-file| An explanation about where the swap file will be created and
272 what its name is.
273 |:preserve| Manually flushing the swap file to disk.
274 |:swapname| See the name of the swap file for the current file.
275 'updatecount' Number of key strokes after which the swap file is flushed to
276 disk.
277 'updatetime' Timeout after which the swap file is flushed to disk.
278 'swapsync' Whether the disk is synced when the swap file is flushed.
279 'directory' List of directory names where to store the swap file.
280 'maxmem' Limit for memory usage before writing text to the swap file.
281 'maxmemtot' Same, but for all files in total.
282
283 ==============================================================================
284
285 Next chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
286
287 Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: