Re: Vim backup files

Steve Litt wrote:

> I've used Vim since the 20th century, and of course things keep getting
> better, which means change. As I remember, back in the day, the Vim
> backup files that began with a dot and ended with .swp were text files
> containing what was in the window, and were automatically updated every
> X number of seconds. This appears to no longer be the case.
> .test.pl.swp appeared to be a binary file, so I couldn't just diff it
> with the original.

The backup file of file.txt is .file.txt~.
The .swp file is a binary format, although it does contain the text in
some way.

> In the past, after a crash, when I ran Vim on the file again, it gave
> me a dialog box in which to choose to recover, ignore, quit, whatever.
> This didn't happen in today's crash.
>
> I tried using :rec in the main file, it said there was no recovery
> file, and maybe changed the recovery file to .test.pl.swp.swp. I tried
> a few other things, but I was always just one step behind and
> eventually lost the swap files completely. Only one of them was
> important, and I have a paper copy, so I should be OK.
>
> After a crash, I'd like a way to know whether a swap file exists, and
> whether it indicates any differences from what's in my buffer. Is there
> a program that can do this for me, now that the dialog box doesn't
> happen anymore?

You can use "vim -r" to list swap files. If you see the one you need
then use "vim -r .file.txt.swp" to recover it.

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