Gentlepeople:

When I run vi on large files I get the
following error message: "Tmp file too large"

Is there a better alternative editor or vi
based work around for large files?

Thanks for the help.
Thomas Dineen
tdineen@is.netcom.com

Thomas Dineen wrote:
> Gentlepeople:
>
> When I run vi on large files I get the
> following error message: "Tmp file too large"
>
> Is there a better alternative editor or vi
> based work around for large files?

Your /var is probably too small. I can't recall a way to make
vi put temp files in a different place. You could try setting
TMPDIR and see if vi honors that, although I don't think it does.

To my knowledge, if you want a visual editor (and not, say, ed),
then you're going to have to install a third-party editor. If
you want a vi-like editor that can handle larger files, then I
believe that vim should do the trick.

- Logan

In article <m5Aaf.5410$Rl1.2611@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink. net>,
Thomas Dineen <tdineen@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>Gentlepeople:
>
> When I run vi on large files I get the
>following error message: "Tmp file too large"
>
>Is there a better alternative editor or vi
>based work around for large files?

How large is that file?

Do you have anough space in /tmp and /var/tmp?

Most editors do not handle large files at all.
The editors called vi, vim, emacs all stop working
somewhere between 50 MB and 500 MB.

If you like to edit real large files use "ved"

ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/ved/

ved is the only known editor that really allows to
edit files > 2 GB.

If you like to edit very large files, you of course need
to define a place where ved can store tmporaty files.

VED_TMPDIR Directory where all files are stored
that are needed for a recover run

VED_FTMPDIR Where the ved "swap" file is located.

If VED_FTMPDIR if missing but VED_TMPDIR is present,
all tmp files are in VED_TMPDIR.


--
EMail:joerg@schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
js@cs.tu-berlin.de (uni)
schilling@fokus.fraunhofer.de (work) Blog: http://schily.blogspot.com/
URL: http://cdrecord.berlios.de/old/private/ ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily

In article <xSAaf.50031$5e4.7120@tornado.texas.rr.com>,
Logan Shaw <lshaw-usenet@austin.rr.com> writes:
> Thomas Dineen wrote:
>> Gentlepeople:
>>
>> When I run vi on large files I get the
>> following error message: "Tmp file too large"
>>
>> Is there a better alternative editor or vi
>> based work around for large files?
>
> Your /var is probably too small. I can't recall a way to make

I suspect vi's workfile hit vi's internal limit.
I think the error text is different if it gets a write error
on the workfile.

> vi put temp files in a different place. You could try setting

IIRC, put following line in ~/.exrc
set directory=/some/large/directory

You can also issue the command to vi as an ex command (preceded
with a colon), but it won't help in that case unless you then
read the large file into vi after issuing the command.

--
Andrew Gabriel