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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-23T06:28:48+00:00

I have a file x.cpp which a while ago contained, say, AAAAAAA. I accidentally

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I have a file x.cpp which a while ago contained, say, “AAAAAAA”.

I accidentally copied over it with another file containing, say, “BBBBBBB”.

PANIC!

Hang on, let’s look at .x.cpp.swp — there’s a load of binary junk then “BBBBBBB” then more junk then “AAAAAAA”, so it looks like the swap file contains both versions. Hooray!

So, how do I recover the “AAAAAAAA” version? If I do vim -r then I get “BBBBBBB”. Unfortunately, I can’t recover-then-hit-undo. Is there an incantation? Can I hack the swap file?

Massive gratitude if you know a trick here.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    No, but if you use Vim 7.3+ you can enable undofiles

    To get started:

    :he undo-persistence

    That way you can navigate the undo tree even after a (involuntary) close of your editor.

    So yes, the usual trick of going back in time, yanking, going forward in time, pasting will work even after the editor was restarted.

    100g- (locate text, yank into register), 100g+ (locate destination, put register).

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