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pine/vim session interrupted, where's swap/autosave file?
| fred ma | | Sven Guckes | | fred ma | | Sven Guckes | | fred ma | | Sven Guckes |
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| | From: | fred ma | | Subject: | pine/vim session interrupted, where's swap/autosave file? | | Date: | 9 Jan 2005 20:35:50 GMT |
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 | I was editing a many-hour email composition using vim 6.2, invoked from
pine 4.21, on solaris 8. The file name of the composition was
/var/tmp/pico.XXXXXX, where the X's are numerical digits. I was doing this
over an ssh connection (a secure version of telnet) when the dialup
connection got broken. No problem, I thought, I'll just get the swap file;
should be simple, my vim swap file directory is simply set to ".", so the swap
file should be in /var/tmp. It was not! Neither was in in my home
directory, where I invoked pine. In fact, no files in either directories
had a recent time stamp. I believe that in the mad rush of searching, I
might have seen some files /var/tmp/pico.XXXXX, but they were not plain
text. Anyway, I fired up pine again hoping it would somehow get me
access to those files. I can't be 100% sure I saw them there before firing
up pine again. After much rummaging about, I was unable to retrieve my
composition. The files /var/tmp/pico.XXXXX no longer reflected my
lenghty composition, but rather, my more recent attempts at firing up
pine and doing dummy compositions in the hopes of getting my original
composition back again. Finally, pine saved something in ~/dead.letter,
which again was the result of recent dummy compositions rather than the
original composition.
Where does one find the intermediately saved file in the event of an
interrupted pine/vim session? Thanks.
Fred
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| | From: | Sven Guckes | | Subject: | Re: pine/vim session interrupted, where's swap/autosave file? | | Date: | 10 Jan 2005 03:16:58 GMT |
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| * fred ma [2005-01-09]:
> I was editing a many-hour email composition using
> vim 6.2, invoked from pine 4.21, on solaris 8.
hint:
solaris 10
pine 4.61
vim 6.3
> The file name of the composition was /var/tmp/pico.XXXXXX,
> where the X's are numerical digits. I was doing this over
> an ssh connection (a secure version of telnet) when the
> dialup connection got broken. No problem, I thought,
> I'll just get the swap file; should be simple, my
> vim swap file directory is simply set to ".", so
> the swap file should be in /var/tmp. It was not!
some news for you:
the swap file does not get updated with every keystroke.
and temporary directories get cleared once in a while.
and on some systems *everyone* can delete files there!
so - adjust pine to use another directory for temporary files
(something like ~/.pine/) and adjust vim's "directory"
option, too. and save *often*.
and maybe use it all within "screen" so you can
pick up with "screen -r" after you log in again.
and maybe switch to mutt. then again... don't.
Sven
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| | From: | fred ma | | Subject: | Re: pine/vim session interrupted, where's swap/autosave file? | | Date: | 10 Jan 2005 06:45:13 GMT |
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| Sven Guckes wrote:
> * fred ma [2005-01-09]:
>
>>I was editing a many-hour email composition using
>>vim 6.2, invoked from pine 4.21, on solaris 8.
>
> hint:
> solaris 10
> pine 4.61
> vim 6.3
Upgrading is certainly one way to troubleshoot it. As nonadmin, it is less
straighforward, though. If I don't want to build a personal copy of all
common tools (which I have done to some extent, with varying degrees of
success, mail readers being the most finicky and least successful) I'd to
forward this to the sys admin and ask for it to be on his to-do list. I
have to be selective about this, so for my current situation, a realistic
alternative is simply to do all my text editing outside of pine, if a
solution can't be found with the existing tool versions.
>>The file name of the composition was /var/tmp/pico.XXXXXX,
>>where the X's are numerical digits. I was doing this over
>>an ssh connection (a secure version of telnet) when the
>>dialup connection got broken. No problem, I thought,
>>I'll just get the swap file; should be simple, my
>>vim swap file directory is simply set to ".", so
>>the swap file should be in /var/tmp. It was not!
>
> some news for you:
> the swap file does not get updated with every keystroke.
That is not news for me, or for anyone, as far as I know.
> and temporary directories get cleared once in a while.
> and on some systems *everyone* can delete files there!
Yes, though in this case, that would not be it. The lifetime of the files
in /tmp are significantly longer than a few minutes. Fortunately, as well,
in our system, the files in /tmp are properly permissioned to prevent
others from meddling with a user's files.
> so - adjust pine to use another directory for temporary files
> (something like ~/.pine/) and adjust vim's "directory"
> option, too. and save *often*.
OK, thanks for that. I'll look into changing the directory of the
pine file. For vim, I deliberately chose "." to avoid filename
collisions between swap files for simultaneous vim sessions. Hopefully,
modifying the pine directory will suffice.
I normally do save often, but in this case, I think the file itself was
not to be found.
> and maybe use it all within "screen" so you can
> pick up with "screen -r" after you log in again.
> and maybe switch to mutt. then again... don't.
>
> Sven
I'll edit outside of pine for the immediate term and look at switching
pine directories shortly. If that doesn't do it, I'll look further at
your other suggestions. Thanks, Sven.
Fred
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| | From: | Sven Guckes | | Subject: | Re: pine/vim session interrupted, where's swap/autosave file? | | Date: | 11 Jan 2005 22:09:06 GMT |
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| * fred ma [2005-01-10]:
> Sven Guckes wrote:
> > * fred ma [2005-01-09]:
> >> I was editing a many-hour email composition using
> >> vim 6.2, invoked from pine 4.21, on solaris 8.
> > hint: solaris 10, pine 4.61, vim 6.3
>
> .. for my current situation, a realistic alternative is
> simply to do all my text editing outside of pine, if a
> solution can't be found with the existing tool versions.
so you don't want to upgrade - ok.
but then you have chosen to do so.
> > adjust pine to use another directory for temporary files
> > and adjust vim's "directory" option, too. and save *often*.
>
> OK, thanks for that. I'll look into changing the directory of the
> pine file. For vim, I deliberately chose "." to avoid filename
> collisions between swap files for simultaneous vim sessions.
> Hopefully, modifying the pine directory will suffice.
i suggest to try out some things and give feedback
on this right away rather than announcing a test
and waiting for others to ask about the results.
> I normally do save often, but in this case,
> I think the file itself was not to be found.
so it's a one time occurrence? please
try to find a reproducible example!
> > and maybe use it all within "screen" so you can
> > pick up with "screen -r" after you log in again.
> > and maybe switch to mutt. then again... don't.
>
> I'll edit outside of pine for the immediate term
> and look at switching pine directories shortly.
good luck! hopefully this can be resolved with
some configuration. but in the long run you
should have your admin upgrade the programs.
and maybe the system, too.
Sven
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| | From: | fred ma | | Subject: | Re: pine/vim session interrupted, where's swap/autosave file? | | Date: | 12 Jan 2005 17:38:58 GMT |
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| Sven Guckes wrote:
> * fred ma [2005-01-10]:
>
>>Sven Guckes wrote:
>>
>>>* fred ma [2005-01-09]:
>>>
>>>>I was editing a many-hour email composition using
>>>>vim 6.2, invoked from pine 4.21, on solaris 8.
>>>
>>>hint: solaris 10, pine 4.61, vim 6.3
>>
>>.. for my current situation, a realistic alternative is
>>simply to do all my text editing outside of pine, if a
>>solution can't be found with the existing tool versions.
>
> so you don't want to upgrade - ok.
> but then you have chosen to do so.
Yes, and I provided the description of the circumstances for
this decision in my last posting. It is a matter of picking
and choosing the matters to which I bring to the sys admin
because there is only one of him, and he is picking and choosing
the most pressing issues to respond to.
>>>adjust pine to use another directory for temporary files
>>>and adjust vim's "directory" option, too. and save *often*.
>>
>>OK, thanks for that. I'll look into changing the directory of the
>>pine file. For vim, I deliberately chose "." to avoid filename
>>collisions between swap files for simultaneous vim sessions.
>>Hopefully, modifying the pine directory will suffice.
>
> i suggest to try out some things and give feedback
> on this right away rather than announcing a test
> and waiting for others to ask about the results.
I was responding appreciately to your providing a suggestion.
I will give your suggestion a try when I have the opportunity.
I'm sorry for not being more prompt about it, but that's just
the set of circumstances I'm working with right now. Sometimes,
when I post to ask for suggestions, I'm doing so more for options
in the future rather than an online debugging session, though I
appreciate people's willingness to help in the the latter way.
>>I normally do save often, but in this case,
>>I think the file itself was not to be found.
>
> so it's a one time occurrence? please
> try to find a reproducible example!
Will do. When I deal with the pine temp file directory,
I will try artifically break the ssh connection to
see if the file can be recovered despite the interrupted
pine session.
> good luck! hopefully this can be resolved with
> some configuration. but in the long run you
> should have your admin upgrade the programs.
> and maybe the system, too.
Thank you. As I said, I have to trade off what to bring
to the Sys Admin's attention versus what I can work around.
Fred
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| | From: | Sven Guckes | | Subject: | Re: pine/vim session interrupted, where's swap/autosave file? | | Date: | 12 Jan 2005 21:32:11 GMT |
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| * fred ma [2005-01-12]:
> Sven Guckes wrote:
> >>I normally do save often, but in this case,
> >>I think the file itself was not to be found.
> > so it's a one time occurrence? please
> > try to find a reproducible example!
>
> Will do. When I deal with the pine temp file directory,
> I will try artifically break the ssh connection to see if the
> file can be recovered despite the interrupted pine session.
there's an idea. use "~."
to interrupt the ssh connection.
please post a report of results.
Sven
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