Re: Need help in recovering file in vi.

On 02/29/12 14:02, Tayade, Nilesh wrote:
> While modifying my own code I accidently saved the file using
> ".wq" (note the dot placed accidently) and lost the contents.
> I am not really able to understand what this command did and
> how the contents are lost.
>
> Could someone please provide any pointer on how can I recover
> the contents?

It would seem to me that you would have needed to issue ":.wq!"
(note the exclamation point in addition to the period) or
otherwise Vim would have cowardly refused with an E140. To
understand what the period did, it's the range for the current
line as detailed under ":help :w" with the ":[range]w[rite][!]"
entry.

If you have a rather recent version of Vim (I believe 7.3+) with
persistent undo enabled, it might be possible to resurrect the
file. Or, if you have backups enabled or keep your code/text in
a VCS, you could use those to restore the original (though if
you're asking here, it sounds like this isn't the case).
Alternatively, you might be able to use a file-recovery tool at
the OS level to resurrect the file from the disk.

Otherwise, I'm afraid that you issued a "write the
currently-named file with the contents of the range I specify
('.' is the current line) and I mean it!" command, so Vim
obediently did as you asked even at the cost of your data.

-tim

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