VIM: Disable Swap

Question

How does one disable swap files for VIM via .vimrc?

ennuikiller · Accepted Answer · 2009-10-28 14:08:07Z

11

set nobackup
set nowritebackup
set noswapfile

answered Oct 28, 2009 at 14:08

ennuikiller

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3

Backup files can be useful if you need the original quickly. Also keep in mind that by turning off nowritebackup you risk destroying the file in case of an IO error.
– user1931
Oct 28, 2009 at 14:33
4

i'd guess that disabling either backup or swapfile is reasonable, but not both. i disable the backups but the swapfile's saved my derriere a few times.
– quack quixote
Oct 28, 2009 at 15:40
2

I really wouldn't be concerned about an IO error; I should like to think if it occurred, recovering my changes to the file are the least of my worries.
– Jeremy L
Oct 28, 2009 at 17:55

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user1931user1931 · Accepted Answer · 2009-10-28 13:04:22Z

6

Throw this into your .vimrc:

set noswapfile

answered Oct 28, 2009 at 13:04

user1931

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Kevin Panko · Accepted Answer · 2009-11-19 21:48:07Z

5

I would not disable swap files completely because they are used for recovery if vim crashes.

Instead, put them into a temp folder so that they are not scattered all over:

if has("win32")
   set directory=c:\\tmp,c:\\temp
elseif has("unix")
   set directory=/tmp
endif

answered Nov 19, 2009 at 21:48

Kevin Panko

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Kevin M · Accepted Answer · 2009-10-28 16:49:40Z

3

start vim with the "-n" argument:

vim -n <file>

answered Oct 28, 2009 at 16:49

Kevin M

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4 Answers 4