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Feel free to close this as a dupe if you can find a question that deals with this case.

This is NOT about HOW to recover a .swp file in vi.

I'm not sure if I want to recover. I want to preview what I'll be changing if I do, and in a non destructive way.

Unfortunately typing vi .myfile.swp shows me what looks like binary gobblety gook.

To make my current state clear, I believe no one is currently editing the file. I happen to be looking at an overzealous copy of a dir that apparently happened while the file was open.

My current plan is to copy myfile to myfile-temp and then recover myfile. Then inspect for differences.

Is there a better way?

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  • I'm also noticing that making a copy of the file and renaming the swp file to match the copy doesn't work. I can open the copy without vi/m offering to recover.
    – MagicWindow
    Feb 12, 2016 at 16:00
  • The swap file has a struct block0 (C) that is written to the start of the swap. Among the properties of the struct is the file name b0_fname. If you open the swap file in Vim you should be able to locate this field at the top (byte 100+/-) What you need to do is either create a new directory where you copy the swap file and source, or you can edit the swap file IFF you give it a name of same length as original. The latter is more for hack and fun ... Recovering by swap is by default non-destructive for the original file as well as original swap. (Unless :w)
    – Runium
    Feb 12, 2016 at 16:44
  • @Sukminder Thanks! What's compelling me to :w is the need to diff.
    – MagicWindow
    Feb 12, 2016 at 16:56
  • Then do as in linked answer. :sav another_file_name and then diff original_file_name and another_file_name ... Perhaps play around with some test files first ...
    – Runium
    Feb 12, 2016 at 17:01
  • Vi does not create such a file. It seems that you are talking about vim.
    – schily
    Feb 12, 2016 at 17:02

2 Answers 2

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4

By far, my favorite vim plugin for handling this is Recover.vim. When you edit a file which has an associated .swp, it gives you the option of showing the diff between the two. This is invaluable. For example:

$ vi foo.py
...
Please choose:
D[i]ff, (O)pen Read-Only, (E)dit anyway, (R)ecover, (Q)uit, (A)bort, (D)elete:
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1
  • 1
    Rather than be required to install something I my not have permission to install I'd prefer an answer describes the simple work around you mentioned in the comments of the question.
    – MagicWindow
    Feb 14, 2016 at 20:37
0

There are quite a few functions to help with this, see the relevant page on the Vim wiki.

The article is very long, so I won't copy it all here, but the basic premise is to save to another file and then diff the two.

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2
  • The first entry looks promising. It seems to be saving the swp changes to a new file, so it is non destructive. And even includes doing a diff. However it does a poor job of explaining steps 1-8. Could I talk you into improving your answer?
    – MagicWindow
    Feb 12, 2016 at 15:46
  • @MagicWindow I made an attempt at improving the solution from the vim wiki link. see my improvements here: vi.stackexchange.com/q/15584/1894 .
    – Trevor Boyd Smith
    Mar 15, 2018 at 15:43

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