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+*usr_11.txt* For Vim version 7.0aa. Last change: 2004 Apr 23
+
+ VIM USER MANUAL - by Bram Moolenaar
+
+ Recovering from a crash
+
+
+Did your computer crash? And you just spent hours editing? Don't panic! Vim
+keeps enough information on harddisk to be able to restore most of your work.
+This chapter shows you how to get your work back and explains how the swap
+file is used.
+
+|11.1| Basic recovery
+|11.2| Where is the swap file?
+|11.3| Crashed or not?
+|11.4| Further reading
+
+ Next chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
+ Previous chapter: |usr_10.txt| Making big changes
+Table of contents: |usr_toc.txt|
+
+==============================================================================
+*11.1* Basic recovery
+
+In most cases recovering a file is quite simple, assuming you know which file
+you were editing (and the harddisk is still working). Start Vim on the file,
+with the "-r" argument added: >
+
+ vim -r help.txt
+
+Vim will read the swap file (used to store text you were editing) and may read
+bits and pieces of the original file. If all is well, you will see these
+messages (with different file names, of course):
+
+ Using swap file ".help.txt.swp" ~
+ Original file "~/vim/runtime/doc/help.txt" ~
+ Recovery completed. You should check if everything is OK. ~
+ (You might want to write out this file under another name ~
+ and run diff with the original file to check for changes) ~
+ Delete the .swp file afterwards. ~
+
+To be on the safe side, write this file under another name: >
+
+ :write help.txt.recovered
+
+Compare the file with the original file to check if you ended up with what you
+expected. Vimdiff is very useful for this |08.7|. Watch out for the original
+file to contain a more recent version (you saved the file just before the
+computer crashed). And check that no lines are missing (something went wrong
+that Vim could not recover).
+ If Vim produces warning messages when recovering, read them carefully.
+This is rare though.
+
+It's normal that the last few changes can not be recovered. Vim flushes the
+changes to disk when you don't type for about four seconds, or after typing
+about two hundred characters. This is set with the 'updatetime' and
+'updatecount' options. Thus when Vim didn't get a chance to save itself when
+the system went down, the changes after the last flush will be lost.
+
+If you were editing without a file name, give an empty string as argument: >
+
+ vim -r ""
+
+You must be in the right directory, otherwise Vim can't find the swap file.
+
+==============================================================================
+*11.2* Where is the swap file?
+
+Vim can store the swap file in several places. Normally it is in the same
+directory as the original file. To find it, change to the directory of the
+file, and use: >
+
+ vim -r
+
+Vim will list the swap files that it can find. It will also look in other
+directories where the swap file for files in the current directory may be
+located. It will not find swap files in any other directories though, it
+doesn't search the directory tree.
+ The output could look like this:
+
+ Swap files found: ~
+ In current directory: ~
+ 1. .main.c.swp ~
+ owned by: mool dated: Tue May 29 21:00:25 2001 ~
+ file name: ~mool/vim/vim6/src/main.c ~
+ modified: YES ~
+ user name: mool host name: masaka.moolenaar.net ~
+ process ID: 12525 ~
+ In directory ~/tmp: ~
+ -- none -- ~
+ In directory /var/tmp: ~
+ -- none -- ~
+ In directory /tmp: ~
+ -- none -- ~
+
+If there are several swap files that look like they may be the one you want to
+use, a list is given of these swap files and you are requested to enter the
+number of the one you want to use. Carefully look at the dates to decide
+which one you want to use.
+ In case you don't know which one to use, just try them one by one and check
+the resulting files if they are what you expected.
+
+
+USING A SPECIFIC SWAP FILE
+
+If you know which swap file needs to be used, you can recover by giving the
+swap file name. Vim will then finds out the name of the original file from
+the swap file.
+
+Example: >
+ vim -r .help.txt.swo
+
+This is also handy when the swap file is in another directory than expected.
+If this still does not work, see what file names Vim reports and rename the
+files accordingly. Check the 'directory' option to see where Vim may have
+put the swap file.
+
+ Note:
+ Vim tries to find the swap file by searching the directories in the
+ 'dir' option, looking for files that match "filename.sw?". If
+ wildcard expansion doesn't work (e.g., when the 'shell' option is
+ invalid), Vim does a desperate try to find the file "filename.swp".
+ If that fails too, you will have to give the name of the swapfile
+ itself to be able to recover the file.
+
+==============================================================================
+*11.3* Crashed or not? *ATTENTION* *E325*
+
+Vim tries to protect you from doing stupid things. Suppose you innocently
+start editing a file, expecting the contents of the file to show up. Instead,
+Vim produces a very long message:
+
+ E325: ATTENTION ~
+ Found a swap file by the name ".main.c.swp" ~
+ owned by: mool dated: Tue May 29 21:09:28 2001 ~
+ file name: ~mool/vim/vim6/src/main.c ~
+ modified: no ~
+ user name: mool host name: masaka.moolenaar.net ~
+ process ID: 12559 (still running) ~
+ While opening file "main.c" ~
+ dated: Tue May 29 19:46:12 2001 ~
+ ~
+ (1) Another program may be editing the same file. ~
+ If this is the case, be careful not to end up with two ~
+ different instances of the same file when making changes. ~
+ Quit, or continue with caution. ~
+ ~
+ (2) An edit session for this file crashed. ~
+ If this is the case, use ":recover" or "vim -r main.c" ~
+ to recover the changes (see ":help recovery"). ~
+ If you did this already, delete the swap file ".main.c.swp" ~
+ to avoid this message. ~
+
+You get this message, because, when starting to edit a file, Vim checks if a
+swap file already exists for that file. If there is one, there must be
+something wrong. It may be one of these two situations.
+
+1. Another edit session is active on this file. Look in the message for the
+ line with "process ID". It might look like this:
+
+ process ID: 12559 (still running) ~
+
+ The text "(still running)" indicates that the process editing this file
+ runs on the same computer. When working on a non-Unix system you will not
+ get this extra hint. When editing a file over a network, you may not see
+ the hint, because the process might be running on another computer. In
+ those two cases you must find out what the situation is yourself.
+ If there is another Vim editing the same file, continuing to edit will
+ result in two versions of the same file. The one that is written last will
+ overwrite the other one, resulting in loss of changes. You better quit
+ this Vim.
+
+2. The swap file might be the result from a previous crash of Vim or the
+ computer. Check the dates mentioned in the message. If the date of the
+ swap file is newer than the file you were editing, and this line appears:
+
+ modified: YES ~
+
+ Then you very likely have a crashed edit session that is worth recovering.
+ If the date of the file is newer than the date of the swap file, then
+ either it was changed after the crash (perhaps you recovered it earlier,
+ but didn't delete the swap file?), or else the file was saved before the
+ crash but after the last write of the swap file (then you're lucky: you
+ don't even need that old swap file). Vim will warn you for this with this
+ extra line:
+
+ NEWER than swap file! ~
+
+
+UNREADABLE SWAP FILE
+
+Sometimes the line
+
+ [cannot be read] ~
+
+will appear under the name of the swap file. This can be good or bad,
+depending on circumstances.
+
+It is good if a previous editing session crashed without having made any
+changes to the file. Then a directory listing of the swap file will show
+that it has zero bytes. You may delete it and proceed.
+
+It is slightly bad if you don't have read permission for the swap file. You
+may want to view the file read-only, or quit. On multi-user systems, if you
+yourself did the last changes under a different login name, a logout
+followed by a login under that other name might cure the "read error". Or
+else you might want to find out who last edited (or is editing) the file and
+have a talk with them.
+
+It is very bad if it means there is a physical read error on the disk
+containing the swap file. Fortunately, this almost never happens.
+You may want to view the file read-only at first (if you can), to see the
+extent of the changes that were "forgotten". If you are the one in charge of
+that file, be prepared to redo your last changes.
+
+
+WHAT TO DO?
+
+If dialogs are supported you will be asked to select one of five choices:
+
+ Swap file ".main.c.swp" already exists! ~
+ [O]pen Read-Only, (E)dit anyway, (R)ecover, (Q)uit, (A)bort, (D)elete it: ~
+
+O Open the file readonly. Use this when you just want to view the file and
+ don't need to recover it. You might want to use this when you know someone
+ else is editing the file, but you just want to look in it and not make
+ changes.
+
+E Edit the file anyway. Use this with caution! If the file is being edited
+ in another Vim, you might end up with two versions of the file. Vim will
+ try to warn you when this happens, but better be safe then sorry.
+
+R Recover the file from the swap file. Use this if you know that the swap
+ file contains changes that you want to recover.
+
+Q Quit. This avoids starting to edit the file. Use this if there is another
+ Vim editing the same file.
+ When you just started Vim, this will exit Vim. When starting Vim with
+ files in several windows, Vim quits only if there is a swap file for the
+ first one. When using an edit command, the file will not be loaded and you
+ are taken back to the previously edited file.
+
+A Abort. Like Quit, but also abort further commands. This is useful when
+ loading a script that edits several files, such as a session with multiple
+ windows.
+
+D Delete the swap file. Use this when you are sure you no longer need it.
+ For example, when it doesn't contain changes, or when the file itself is
+ newer than the swap file.
+ On Unix this choice is only offered when the process that created the
+ swap file does not appear to be running.
+
+If you do not get the dialog (you are running a version of Vim that does not
+support it), you will have to do it manually. To recover the file, use this
+command: >
+
+ :recover
+
+
+Vim cannot always detect that a swap file already exists for a file. This is
+the case when the other edit session puts the swap files in another directory
+or when the path name for the file is different when editing it on different
+machines. Therefore, don't rely on Vim always warning you.
+
+If you really don't want to see this message, you can add the 'A' flag to the
+'shortmess' option. But it's very unusual that you need this.
+
+==============================================================================
+*11.4* Further reading
+
+|swap-file| An explanation about where the swap file will be created and
+ what its name is.
+|:preserve| Manually flushing the swap file to disk.
+|:swapname| See the name of the swap file for the current file.
+'updatecount' Number of key strokes after which the swap file is flushed to
+ disk.
+'updatetime' Timeout after which the swap file is flushed to disk.
+'swapsync' Whether the disk is synced when the swap file is flushed.
+'directory' List of directory names where to store the swap file.
+'maxmem' Limit for memory usage before writing text to the swap file.
+'maxmemtot' Same, but for all files in total.
+
+==============================================================================
+
+Next chapter: |usr_12.txt| Clever tricks
+
+Copyright: see |manual-copyright| vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: