[ILUG] Weird vim behaviour

[Gareth Eason]

    Erm... the main purpose of the 'backup' file in (g)vi(m) (which is 
actually not a backup file at all but a sync'ed to disk working copy) is 
that if a connection is lost to a remote server before you've saved your 
changes, they're not lost. Just log in again, recover the 'backup' file 
- write out your changes and hopefully some/all of them will be there. 
It's saved me hours of time over flaky modem connections - especially of 
the GSM modem on a train stylee.

    Best regards,
    -->Gar


bobb wrote:

>Ruairi Newman hath declared on Friday the 13 day of August 2004  :-:
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>>> Thanks, guys, that's it. On Solaris, vi creates temp files under /var/tmp.
>>>      
>>>
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>>You probably know this already, but for those who don't, it's possible
>>to change the location of the directory used by vim for these backup
>>files.
>>    
>>
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>The location of the temp swapfiles is actually controlled by the
>``directory'' setting, I generally have:
>
>    set directory=~/tmp,.
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>put it in ~/tmp or if not, put it in the same directory as the file.
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>>Just add 'set backupdir=<directory name>' to your .vimrc (making sure
>>you have write access to the directory you specify!).
>>    
>>
> 
>Just to clarify for others, a backup is a copy of the last version
>of the file, handy for accidents :)  Although you should be using
>rcs or summat anyhoo...
>
>- bobb
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