Windows – How to open a new file in gvim? E303: Unable to open swap file

gvimvimwindows

I use gvim on Windows. How can I open a new file?

I have tried with :e ~\mypath\myfile.txt but I get this error message:

E303: Unable to open swap file for "C:\Users\Jonas\mypath\myfile.txt", recovery impossible

How to open a new file using gvim on Windows?

Best Answer

Solution 1

This seem to be a bug. From Vim E303: Unable to open swap file for "[No Name]", recovery impossible, I should add this to _gvimrc:

set directory=.,$TEMP

Solution 2

To clarify the location of files and directories, which aren't immediately obvious, here is another solution.

Make the following directories (e.g., from a command prompt):

mkdir %HOMEPATH%\vim\backup
mkdir %HOMEPATH%\vim\tmp

Note that %HOMEPATH% equals C:\Users\User.Name, where "User.Name" is your Windows user name.

Then copy the following into %HOMEPATH%\_vimrc:

set backup
set backupdir=$HOME\vim\backup
set directory=$HOME\vim\tmp
set nosmartindent
set tabstop=2
set shiftwidth=2
set expandtab
set ai
set pastetoggle=<F2>
syntax on

Save the file and the error should go away.

Related Solutions

Mac – Where does VIM (gvim/macvim) keep swap files for unsaved/unnamed buffers

Start up vim and try:

:recover <filename>

If the file never had a name, then simply:

:recover

That's your best bet. For more about swap files and recovery, see:

:help usr_11

About the swap files, typically they're saved in the same directory as the file being edited, but with a . added the beginning to make it hidden and .swp at the end, but it's possible to move them elsewhere by something like:

:set directory=~/vimswap

or similar.

See:

:help swap

For all the details.

A vim swap file is not the same as the edited buffer, however, so be sure to read up there on what can be done for recovery.

EDIT: comments answering the question:

[…] It seems to look in your current working directory, ~/tmp, /var/tmp and /tmp for swap files and in my case I always have a current working directory set and that's where it got saved. – dsclementsen Oct 5 '10 at 1:42

also, be sure to check out the vim -r command line arg. This will print out all the swap files found and where they are. In addtion it will have a lot of extra information such as date/modified/username/etc... – Neg_EV Oct 5 '10 at 13:49

Windows – How to set the default font for gvim on Windows

i would add it to _gvimrc, the relevant part of mine looks like this:

if has("gui_kde")
    set guifont=Consolas/13/-1/5/50/0/0/0/0/0
elseif has("gui_gtk")
    set guifont=Consolas\ 13
elseif has("gui_running")
    if has("win32") || has("win64")
        set guifont=Consolas:h12
    else
        set guifont=-xos4-terminus-medium-r-normal--14-140-72-72-c-80-iso8859-1
    endif
endif