Journal Files
Journal files record your edits so that if a system failure interrupts
your editing session, you can recover your work. Normally, journal files
are deleted automatically when you exit or quit. If a system failure
occurs, such as a communications break between your terminal and the
computer, the journal files are saved.
There are two types of journaling and recovery---buffer-change and
keystroke, as follows:
Buffer-Change Journaling and Recovery
o Buffer-change journaling creates a journal file for each text
buffer. By default, EVE uses buffer-change journaling---on
DECwindows or character-cell terminals.
o On VMS, buffer-change journal files are created in the directory
defined by the TPU$JOURNAL logical name (default is SYS$SCRATCH,
which is usually your SYS$LOGIN directory).
o The name of the journal file derives from the name of the buffer
being edited and the file type .TPU$JOURNAL---for example:
Text buffers Buffer-change journal files
---------------------------------------------------
MAIN MAIN.TPU$JOURNAL
JABBER.TXT JABBER_TXT.TPU$JOURNAL
GUMBO_RECIPE.RNO GUMBO_RECIPE_RNO.TPU$JOURNAL
NEW TEST DATA NEW_TEST_DATA.TPU$JOURNAL
* TEMP * __TEMP__.TPU$JOURNAL
o To recover your edits with buffer-change journaling, invoke EVE and
then use RECOVER BUFFER. You recover one buffer per command, and can
recover buffers from different editing sessions. For example, the
following command recovers the text of a buffer named MEMO.TXT:
Command: RECOVER BUFFER memo.txt
o If you specify multiple input files on the EDIT/TPU command line,
EVE tries to recover each file.
o If you are unsure of the buffer names or journal file names, use the
asterisk wildcard (*):
Command: RECOVER BUFFER *
EVE then lists the available buffer-change journal files so you can
choose the one you want (see help on Choices Buffer).
o Alternatively, to get a list of your buffer-change journal files,
use the following command:
Command: DCL DIRECTORY TPU$JOURNAL:*.TPU$JOURNAL;*
o To recover several buffers or files---one after another---use the
following command:
Command: RECOVER BUFFER ALL
This recovers each buffer or file for which there is a buffer-change
journal file available, regardless of whether the files are from
different editing sessions.
o Recovery with buffer-change journaling restores only your text---it
does NOT restore settings, key definitions, or the contents of
system buffers (such as the INSERT HERE buffer) done before the
system failure and it does not re-create files or buffers deleted
before the system failure.
o Some edits may be slower because of buffer-change journaling,
depending on the extent of the changes---notably, inserting a large
amount of text, such as including a large file into the buffer or
pasting a large amount of text from the DECwindows clipboard.
Usually the recovery is quite fast.
o To disable journaling for a particular buffer, use SET NOJOURNALING.
To disable buffer-change journaling entirely, use SET NOJOURNALING
ALL. Typically, you disable buffer-change journaling if you are only
examining a file without making any edits.
Keystroke Journaling and Recovery
o Keystroke journaling, as used in previous versions of EVE, creates a
single journal file for the editing session, regardless of the
number of buffers you create. To enable keystroke journaling, invoke
EVE using the /JOURNAL= qualifier and specify the journal file you
want created. Default file type is .TJL.
o Keystroke journaling does NOT work with the DECwindows interface and
has other restrictions which do not apply to buffer-change
journaling. For more information, see DCL help on EDIT/TPU/JOURNAL
or see the EVE Reference Manual.
o To recover your edits with keystroke journaling, invoke EVE by
reissuing the command for original editing session, adding the
/RECOVER qualifier, as in the following example:
$ EDIT/TPU /JOURNAL=myjournal
.
.
*** system failure ***
.
.
$ EDIT/TPU /JOURNAL=myjournal /RECOVER
Recovery with keystroke journaling replays your editing session in a
kind of player-piano fashion. Typically, you then exit to save the
recovered work.
o Before recovering your edits with a keystroke journal file, make
sure all relevant files and terminal settings are the same as when
you began the original editing session. Otherwise, the recovery may
fail. For more information, see DCL help on EDIT/TPU/RECOVER or see
the EVE Reference Manual.
o To recover an editing session where you had specified multiple input
files on the EDIT/TPU command line, you must specify the input files
in the same order as in the original command line.
o On ULTRIX, existing files are copied to a backup file before being
overwritten. This is the default behavior, but you can disable it or
customize the way EVE creates the backup file spec by using the SET
NOFILE BACKUP or SET BACKUP CONTROL STRING commands. Note that if
you customize the backup control string to not include version
numbers in your backup file specs, you jepordize your ability to
recover using a keystroke journal file. For more information, see
help on SET BACKUP CONTROL STRING.
o Recovery with a keystroke journal file may not work if you used
CTRL/C to halt or cancel an operation during the editing session.
Keystroke journaling does not record CTRL/C. Therefore, when you
replay your keystrokes, the operation continues uninterrupted, which
is likely to affect how the remaining keystrokes are replayed. In
some cases, the recovery may fail.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Journal files contain information about the text you edit. If you |
| edit confidential data, be sure to keep the journal files secure, |
| as well as the text files. |
| |
| Although journaling and recovery are quite reliable, the safest way |
| to protect your work against a system failure is to write out your |
| edits frequently---particularly during all-day editing sessions. |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
Related topics:
RECOVER BUFFER RECOVER BUFFER ALL SET BACKUP CONTROL
SET FILE BACKUP SET NOFILE BACKUP SET JOURNALING
SET JOURNALING ALL SET NOJOURNALING SET NOJOURNALING ALL
SHOW FILE BACKUP