Undo recovery from swap file in vim

Question

Right before committing a major change, I accidentally "recovered" the file from an old and outdated swap file in vim. My changes seem to be gone. I've tried exploring the undo tree but large chunks of changes are still missing. Is there anyway I can undo the recover operation or am I doomed?

Answer 1

The following works for me to recover the file, with undo history as well:

1. Assume you have my_file, that has some persistent undo history + unsaved changes in .my_file.swp
2. Open file with vim, and press r to get the recovery version
3. Save recovery version to temporary location e.g. :w /tmp/%
4. Close without saving (:q!). Open file again, and press d to delete swap file
5. Optional: compare /tmp/my_file and my_file to make sure you want the recovered version
6. Manually add changes from /tmp/my_file (e.g. ggdG and :r /tmp/% )

This can probably be simplified, but this works for me.

PS: This does not give you the undo history for the changes between the on-disk and recovered version of the file, that appears as one big edit in the history.

Answer 2

After accidentally recovering the file you can simply type :q! to exit vim without saving the recovered changes - this will leave your original file intact and the swap file where it is.

The next time you open the file, you'll see the same prompt - press D to delete the swap file, or abort and find it manually (and possibly delete any other swap files in the same location)