mirror of
https://github.com/neovim/neovim.git
synced 2024-12-25 05:35:10 -07:00
29fe883aa9
Problem:
The swapfile "E325: ATTENTION" dialog is displayed when editing a file
already open in another (running) Nvim. Usually this behavior is
annoying and irrelevant:
- "Recover" and the other options ("Open readonly", "Quit", "Abort") are
almost never wanted.
- swapfiles are less relevant for "multi-Nvim" since 'autoread' is
enabled by default.
- Even less relevant if user enables 'autowrite'.
Solution:
Define a default SwapExists handler which does the following:
1. If the swapfile is owned by a running Nvim process, automatically
chooses "(E)dit anyway" (caveat: this creates a new, extra swapfile,
which is mostly harmless and ignored except by `:recover` or `nvim -r`.
2. Shows a 1-line "ignoring swapfile..." message.
3. Users can disable the default SwapExists handler via `autocmd! nvim_swapfile`.
187 lines
8.0 KiB
Plaintext
187 lines
8.0 KiB
Plaintext
*recover.txt* Nvim
|
|
|
|
|
|
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recovery after a crash *crash-recovery*
|
|
|
|
You have spent several hours typing in that text that has to be finished
|
|
next morning, and then disaster strikes: Your computer crashes.
|
|
|
|
DON'T PANIC!
|
|
|
|
You can recover most of your changes from the files that Vim uses to store
|
|
the contents of the file. Mostly you can recover your work with one command:
|
|
vim -r filename
|
|
|
|
Type |gO| to see the table of contents.
|
|
|
|
==============================================================================
|
|
1. The swap file *swap-file*
|
|
|
|
Vim stores the things you changed in a swap file. Using the original file
|
|
you started from plus the swap file you can mostly recover your work.
|
|
|
|
You can see the name of the current swap file being used with the command:
|
|
|
|
:sw[apname] *:sw* *:swapname*
|
|
|
|
Or you can use the |swapname()| function, which also allows for seeing the
|
|
swap file name of other buffers.
|
|
|
|
The name of the swap file is normally the same as the file you are editing,
|
|
with the extension ".swp".
|
|
- On Unix, a '.' is prepended to swap file names in the same directory as the
|
|
edited file. This avoids that the swap file shows up in a directory
|
|
listing.
|
|
- If this file already exists (e.g., when you are recovering from a crash) a
|
|
warning is given and another extension is used, ".swo", ".swn", etc.
|
|
- An existing file will never be overwritten.
|
|
- The swap file is deleted as soon as Vim stops editing the file.
|
|
|
|
*E326*
|
|
Technical: If the ".swp" file name already exists, the last character is
|
|
decremented until there is no file with that name or ".saa" is
|
|
reached. In the last case, no swap file is created.
|
|
|
|
By setting the 'directory' option you can place the swap file in another place
|
|
than where the edited file is.
|
|
Advantages:
|
|
- You will not pollute the directories with ".swp" files.
|
|
- When the 'directory' is on another partition, reduce the risk of damaging
|
|
the file system where the file is (in a crash).
|
|
Disadvantages:
|
|
- You can get name collisions from files with the same name but in different
|
|
directories (although Vim tries to avoid that by comparing the path name).
|
|
This will result in bogus ATTENTION warning messages.
|
|
- When you use your home directory, and somebody else tries to edit the same
|
|
file, that user will not see your swap file and will not get the ATTENTION
|
|
warning message.
|
|
|
|
If you want to put swap files in a fixed place, put a command resembling the
|
|
following ones in your vimrc:
|
|
:set dir=~/tmp (for Unix)
|
|
:set dir=c:\\tmp (for Win32)
|
|
This is also very handy when editing files on floppy. Of course you will have
|
|
to create that "tmp" directory for this to work!
|
|
|
|
For read-only files, a swap file is not used right away. The swap file is
|
|
created only when making changes.
|
|
|
|
The 'swapfile' option can be reset to avoid creating a swapfile. And the
|
|
|:noswapfile| modifier can be used to not create a swapfile for a new buffer.
|
|
|
|
:nos[wapfile] {command} *:nos* *:noswapfile*
|
|
Execute {command}. If it contains a command that loads a new
|
|
buffer, it will be loaded without creating a swapfile and the
|
|
'swapfile' option will be reset. If a buffer already had a
|
|
swapfile it is not removed and 'swapfile' is not reset.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Detecting an existing swap file ~
|
|
|
|
You can find this in the user manual, section |11.3|.
|
|
|
|
*W325*
|
|
The default |SwapExists| handler (|default-autocmds|) skips the |E325| prompt
|
|
(selects "(E)dit") if the swapfile owner process (1) is still running and (2)
|
|
was started by the current user. This presumes that you normally don't want
|
|
to be bothered with the |ATTENTION| message just because you happen to edit
|
|
the same file from multiple Nvim instances. In the worst case (a system
|
|
crash) there will be more than one swapfile for the file; use |:recover| to
|
|
inspect all of its swapfiles.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Updating the swapfile ~
|
|
|
|
The swap file is updated after typing 200 characters or when you have not
|
|
typed anything for four seconds. This only happens if the buffer was
|
|
changed, not when you only moved around. The reason why it is not kept up to
|
|
date all the time is that this would slow down normal work too much. You can
|
|
change the 200 character count with the 'updatecount' option. You can set
|
|
the time with the 'updatetime' option. The time is given in milliseconds.
|
|
After writing to the swap file Vim syncs the file to disk.
|
|
|
|
If the writing to the swap file is not wanted, it can be switched off by
|
|
setting the 'updatecount' option to 0. The same is done when starting Vim
|
|
with the "-n" option. Writing can be switched back on by setting the
|
|
'updatecount' option to non-zero. Swap files will be created for all buffers
|
|
when doing this. But when setting 'updatecount' to zero, the existing swap
|
|
files will not be removed, it will only affect files that will be opened
|
|
after this.
|
|
|
|
If you want to make sure that your changes are in the swap file use this
|
|
command:
|
|
|
|
*:pre* *:preserve* *E313* *E314*
|
|
:pre[serve] Write all text for the current buffer into its swap
|
|
file. The original file is no longer needed for
|
|
recovery.
|
|
|
|
A Vim swap file can be recognized by the first six characters: "b0VIM ".
|
|
After that comes the version number, e.g., "3.0".
|
|
|
|
|
|
Links and symbolic links ~
|
|
|
|
On Unix it is possible to have two names for the same file. This can be done
|
|
with hard links and with symbolic links (symlinks).
|
|
|
|
For hard links Vim does not know the other name of the file. Therefore, the
|
|
name of the swapfile will be based on the name you used to edit the file.
|
|
There is no check for editing the same file by the other name too, because Vim
|
|
cannot find the other swapfile (except for searching all of your harddisk,
|
|
which would be very slow).
|
|
|
|
For symbolic links Vim resolves the links to find the name of the actual file.
|
|
The swap file name is based on that name. Thus it doesn't matter by what name
|
|
you edit the file, the swap file name will normally be the same. However,
|
|
there are exceptions:
|
|
- When the directory of the actual file is not writable the swapfile is put
|
|
elsewhere.
|
|
- When the symbolic links somehow create a loop you get an *E773* error
|
|
message and the unmodified file name will be used. You won't be able to
|
|
save your file normally.
|
|
|
|
==============================================================================
|
|
2. Recovery *recovery* *E308* *E311*
|
|
|
|
Basic file recovery is explained in the user manual: |usr_11.txt|.
|
|
|
|
Another way to do recovery is to start Vim and use the ":recover" command.
|
|
This is easy when you start Vim to edit a file and you get the "ATTENTION:
|
|
Found a swap file ..." message. In this case the single command ":recover"
|
|
will do the work. You can also give the name of the file or the swap file to
|
|
the recover command:
|
|
*:rec* *:recover* *E305* *E306* *E307*
|
|
:rec[over] [file] Try to recover [file] from the swap file. If [file]
|
|
is not given use the file name for the current
|
|
buffer. The current contents of the buffer are lost.
|
|
This command fails if the buffer was modified.
|
|
|
|
:rec[over]! [file] Like ":recover", but any changes in the current
|
|
buffer are lost.
|
|
|
|
*E312* *E309* *E310* *E1364*
|
|
Vim has some intelligence about what to do if the swap file is corrupt in
|
|
some way. If Vim has doubt about what it found, it will give an error
|
|
message and insert lines with "???" in the text. If you see an error message
|
|
while recovering, search in the file for "???" to see what is wrong. You may
|
|
want to cut and paste to get the text you need.
|
|
|
|
The most common remark is "???LINES MISSING". This means that Vim cannot read
|
|
the text from the original file. This can happen if the system crashed and
|
|
parts of the original file were not written to disk.
|
|
|
|
Be sure that the recovery was successful before overwriting the original
|
|
file or deleting the swap file. It is good practice to write the recovered
|
|
file elsewhere and run 'diff' to find out if the changes you want are in the
|
|
recovered file. Or use |:DiffOrig|.
|
|
|
|
Once you are sure the recovery is ok delete the swap file. Otherwise, you
|
|
will continue to get warning messages that the ".swp" file already exists.
|
|
|
|
|
|
vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl:
|