[comp.sys.hp] How to lose a file using HP-UX's vi !!!!!!!!!

wggabb@sdrc.UUCP (Rob Gabbard) (01/22/91)

If you editing a file with vi under HP-UX and the disk on which that file 
resides becomes full while you are in vi, vi won't tell you it can't write the
file back out and it will then exit !!!!!! You are then left with a partial copy
of the file you were editing or no file at all.  I have lost a complete days 
work because of this.  The only error message you get is on the console
window or ITE and by then its too late.

We have called the HP hotline on this and they have been less than helpful.
Does anyone know a workaround for this ?  We turned off async NFS to no avail.
Other vi implementations on which I've worked give you an error message and 
don't allow you to exit.

tomg@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Thomas J. Gilg) (01/23/91)

> If you editing a file with vi under HP-UX and the disk on which that file 
> resides becomes full while you are in vi, vi won't tell you it can't write
> the file back out and it will then exit !!!!!!

How are you writing/exiting vi ?    I seem to recall that vi gives you some
short cuts for writing/exiting, but at the expense of safety.  I've run
into disk full situations before and the ":wq" way out has protected me.

Thomas Gilg
tomg@cv.hp.com

lrb@alex.ctrg.rri.uwo.ca (Lance R. Bailey) (01/23/91)

In article <101950176@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com> tomg@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Thomas J. Gilg) writes:
>
>> resides becomes full while you are in vi, vi won't tell you it can't write
>> the file back out and it will then exit !!!!!!
>         vi gives you some
>short cuts for writing/exiting, but at the expense of safety.  I've run
>into disk full situations before and the ":wq" way out has protected me.

here here!   the shortcut is "ZZ" and the person who thought of it should
be shot. I teach all my niave users to use :wq because ZZ is 'helpful' and
can cause grief occasionally. my favourite example is 

user sends mail (automatic vi edit) because they want a copy of all
outgoing mail i wrote a macro for 'p' that does :w ! lp -dlj
-onobanner^M^M to write the letter to the laser.  now they were doing
this as the last thing before exiting the editor, (why get a copy of
what wasn't sent) then when the used ZZ to exit, the file, since
unedited since last write (nevermind that last write was NOT to the
file) was not save and the original buffer (empty file) was sent to the
recipient.  telling them to not use ZZ solved the bug.


-- 
Lance R. Bailey  Systems Manager        box: Robarts Research Institute
          email: lrb@rri.uwo.ca              Clinical Trials Resources Group
            fax: 519.663.3789                P.O. Box 5015, 100 Perth Dr.
            vox: 519.663.3787 ext. 4108      London, Canada N6A 5K8

richard@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Richard Artz) (01/24/91)

Rob Gabbard writes about vi and full disks:

I'd just like to mention that you are likely to also experience other problems
when a disk is full. Daemons and some commands are also likely to fail
when the file system fills up. 

If you can't get more disks, you might try:

	cd /users                    (or wherever)
	find . -name core -print     (to find space-wasting core files)
or
	find . -size +2000 -print    (to find 1Mb or bigger files)

Maybe you can compress some files with compress(1).

Also, HP-UX (and many Un*x implementations) will have poorer file
system response when a file system is nearly full.

Hope this helps,

Richard Artz / OSSD Learning Products / 303-229-2036 / richard@hpfcww.fc.hp.com
 Hewlett-Packard / MS11 / 3404 E. Harmony Road / Fort Collins, CO 80525-9599 
This response does not represent the official position of, or statement by, the
Hewlett-Packard Company.  The above data is provided for informational purposes
only. It is supplied without warranty of any kind.