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Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 04:56:48 -0700
From: Linda Walsh <cygwin AT tlinx DOT org>
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To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: vim 7 gives error when editing /etc/hosts
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Harig, Mark wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com 
>> [mailto:cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com] On Behalf Of Frank Fesevur
>> Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2006 5:35 AM
>> To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
>> Subject: vim 7 gives error when editing /etc/hosts
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> When I try to edit /etc/hosts with vim7, it gives this error:
>>    E303: Unable to open swap file for "hosts", recovery impossible
>>
>> The file can be edited, but this never happened with 6.4
>>     
> vim appears to be unable to follow some links.
>
> The following steps lead to the above error for me, also.
>
> $ touch "c:\foo.txt"
> $ ln -s "c:\foo.txt" bar.txt
> $ vim bar.txt  # vim reports the swap-file error
>
> On my computer, and I suspect on yours, /etc/hosts is a
> symbolic link to Windows 'hosts' file:
>   
> $  ls -ln /etc/hosts
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 13558 545 37 Apr  4 18:11 /etc/hosts ->
> C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
>
> Curiously, the link does not cause an error if it was created using
> "cygwin" syntax:
>
> $ ln -fs /c/foo.txt bar.txt  # assumes that you've set the cygdrive
> prefix to "/"
> $ vim bar.txt   # No swap-file error is reported.
>   
----
    That doesn't seem to explain why vim 6.4 worked.  Vim should
be functioning as a POSIX app, and the difference in the pathname
shouldn't make any difference as it should be filtered and converted
by the cygwin layer before vim sees it.

    It seems like something else may be in play.

-l

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