Get Back What You Deleted with Numbered Buffers (Unix Power Tools, 3rd Edition)

17.7. Get Back What You Deleted with Numbered Buffers

Being able to delete large blocks of text in a single bound is all very well and good, but what if you mistakenly delete 53 lines that you need? There's a way to recover any of your past nine deletions, because they're saved in numbered buffers. The last delete is saved in buffer 1, the second-to-last in buffer 2, and so on.

To recover a deletion, type <"> (the double quote character), identify the buffered text by number, then give the put command. To recover your second-to-last deletion from buffer 2, type the following:

"2p

The deletion in buffer 2 is placed on the line below the cursor.

If you're not sure which buffer contains the deletion you want to restore, you don't have to keep typing <">np over and over again. If you use the repeat command (.) with p after u (undo), it automatically increments the buffer number. As a result, you can search through the numbered buffers as follows:

"1pu.u.u etc.

to put the contents of each succeeding buffer in the file one after the other. Each time you type u, the restored text is removed; when you type a dot (.), the contents of the next buffer is restored to your file. Keep typing u and . until you've recovered the text you're looking for.

-- TOR