ARCHIVED: If Emacs crashes, how can I recover the file I was editing?
By default, Emacs frequently saves the current buffer automatically into a temporary file called:
#myfile#
myfile
is the name of the file in the buffer. If you
lose your connection or if Emacs itself crashes, you will probably
be able to get back most of your work. To do so:
- Use Emacs to open the file you were working on when Emacs
crashed. At the bottom of the screen, the following message will
probably appear:
Auto save file is newer; consider M-x recover-file
- This indicates that Emacs has an autosaved file that you can
recover. To recover the file, enter:
M-x recover-file
- At the bottom of the screen, something like the following will
appear:
Recover file: ~/myfile
myfile
is the name of the file you are working on. - Press the
Enter
key. Then Emacs will split the screen. In the bottom screen you will see something like the following:-rw------- 1 jdoe iago 939 Apr 24 19:44 /home/u1/jdoe/#myfile# -rw------- 1 jdoe iago 551 Apr 24 19:33 /home/u1/jdoe/myfile
At the bottom of the screen will be the following message:Recover auto save file /home/u1/jdoe/#myfile#? (yes or no)
- Enter
yes
, and Emacs will read in the autosaved file.
Note: If you start Emacs without giving it a filename, you will be working in the temporary "scratch" buffer. In this case, to recover your work, try entering:
M-x recover-session
Note: If you aren't sure how to enter these commands in Emacs, see How keystrokes are denoted in Emacs
At Indiana University, for personal or departmental Linux or Unix systems support, see Get help for Linux or Unix at IU.
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Last modified on 2018-01-18 10:41:24.