1

I open a file with vim, vim creates a swap file. Though I have not done any single edit on my file, the swap file has significant size, sometimes bigger than the size of the original file.

For example, original file = 1.4K, swap = 12K. What's written inside the swap file that makes it bigger than the original file?

7px
  • 13
  • 3

2 Answers2

2

Swap files appear to contain some basic information about your computer (try opening the swap file in vim! I found the vim version, pc name, file path&name, utf encoding and some other "settings" stored) as well as a whole lot of "nothing". The "nothing" is actually a significant amount of padded null characters ^@ (which I presume is used as a placeholder for the swap file to include other relevant information).

As such, swap files aren't actually "big", they just have some base information making them a bit bigger than the original file. As your files get larger, the % difference between the original file and the swap file becomes less significant.

ljden
  • 378
  • 1
  • 9
1

Vim stores the things you changed in a swap file. Using the original file you started from plus the swap file you can mostly recover your work.

For a detail of What is the purpose of swap files?, follow the link.

Carlos Dagorret
  • 111
  • 3
  • I know the purpose of the swap file. But it gets to that size right after I open the file. No changes at all were made. I realize that not only the changes are stored there but also some meta information, like pid of the editing process etc. But it wouldn't make the swap as big. – 7px Oct 29 '18 at 22:55
  • Well, it seems that yes. It would be necessary to analyze the source code of the VIM to know exactly what information it saves or reserves space. – Carlos Dagorret Oct 29 '18 at 23:05