Found a swap file by the name

Question

When I try to merge my branch with a remote branch:

git merge feature/remote_branch

I got this message:

E325: ATTENTION
Found a swap file by the name ".git/.MERGE_MSG.swp"
          owned by: xxxxxx   dated: Mon Nov 12 23:17:40 2012
         file name: ~xxxxxx/Desktop/My-ios-App/.git/MERGE_MSG
          modified: YES
         user name: xxxxxx   host name: unknown-b8-8d-12-22-27-72.lan
        process ID: 1639
While opening file ".git/MERGE_MSG"
             dated: Tue Nov 13 14:06:48 2012
      NEWER than swap file!

(1) Another program may be editing the same file.
    If this is the case, be careful not to end up with two
    different instances of the same file when making changes.
    Quit, or continue with caution.

(2) An edit session for this file crashed.
    If this is the case, use ":recover" or "vim -r .git/MERGE_MSG"
    to recover the changes (see ":help recovery").
    If you did this already, delete the swap file ".git/.MERGE_MSG.swp"
    to avoid this message.

Swap file ".git/.MERGE_MSG.swp" already exists!
[O]pen Read-Only, (E)dit anyway, (R)ecover, (D)elete it, (Q)uit, (A)bort:

How to deal with this?

trojanfoe · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-05T09:16:48.290

109

Looks like you have an open git commit or git merge going on, and an editor is still open editing the commit message.

Two choices:

Find the session and finish it (preferable).
Delete the .swp file (if you're sure the other git session has gone away).

Clarification from comments:

The session is the editing session.
You can see what .swp is being used by entering the command :sw within the editing session, but generally it's a hidden file in the same directory as the file you are using, with a .swp file suffix (i.e. ~/myfile.txt would be ~/.myfile.txt.swp).

edited Feb 05 '19 at 09:16

answered Nov 13 '12 at 13:48

trojanfoe

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How to find this .swp file? – Oleh Liskovych Aug 11 '17 at 18:26
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How to find "the session" - what does it mean? – RUKAclMortality Oct 05 '17 at 17:33
By finishing it, what exactly option should I choose? Edit or Recover it?@trojanfoe – Tengerye Mar 13 '18 at 01:32
Can you elaborate more on how to finish the session or delete the file? – Leticia Esperon Jun 14 '18 at 20:21
see my answer below for details on how to remove the .swp file – Robert Sinclair Jul 13 '18 at 13:49
@OlehLiskovych It's in the git message or just search your git directory for a .swp file. – RayLoveless Nov 26 '19 at 21:23
rm -rf ~.MERGE_MSG.swp should work @LeticiaEsperon @ OlehLiskovych – KRISHNA KANT SINGH Nov 27 '19 at 06:02
How do I "Find the session"? If I'm running `:sw` in my current editing session, that's not the same as the previous editing session, which in my case is probably from a server-closed ssh session that I no longer have access to. – SteveExdia Nov 30 '21 at 22:08
I don't have an ongoing commit nor merge, I can't figure out how to remove this effing file. – ScottyBlades Feb 17 '22 at 22:57
It's not very useful to use the expressions "find the session" or "finish the session" unless you define them. – user65526 Oct 11 '22 at 11:02
@user65526 See the first point in the *Clarification from comments* bit. – trojanfoe Oct 11 '22 at 12:34
But what does "find the editing session mean"? – user65526 Oct 11 '22 at 12:41
@user65526 The editing session in `vi` (or `vim`). The OP is editing the merge commit message. – trojanfoe Oct 11 '22 at 12:46
But how do you "find the editing session"? – user65526 Oct 11 '22 at 12:50
@user65526 It'll be in one of your terminal windows I assume so Alt-Tab until it shows up. If you are having problems then ask a start a new question. – trojanfoe Oct 11 '22 at 12:51

score 38 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 13 '18 at 13:49

38

Accepted answer fails to mention how to delete the .swp file.

Hit "D" when the prompt comes up and it will remove it.

In my case, after I hit D it left the latest saved version intact and deleted the .swp which got created because I exited VIM incorrectly

answered Jul 13 '18 at 13:49

Robert Sinclair

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thank you - to whomever is crafting this in the bash program - there should be a comment along the lines of: "If you'd like to keep your changes, and delete the old changes - press D" – zero_cool Jan 05 '19 at 19:11
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or just hit git clean -f – vikas kumar Oct 11 '19 at 06:44

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 09 '23 at 05:33

7

Feb, 2022 Update:

Remove .MERGE_MSG.swp to avoid E325: ATTENTION.

rm .MERGE_MSG.swp

Normally .example.swp file is not important.

In addition, normally .example.swp file is made in the same directory of the original file. Then, you cannot list .example.swp files with ls on terminal. You need to use ll or ls -a commands to list .example.swp files on terminal.

edited Feb 09 '23 at 05:33

sideshowbarker

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answered Apr 12 '21 at 03:26

Super Kai - Kazuya Ito

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score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 25 '19 at 11:05

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.MERGE_MSG.swp is open in your git, you just need to delete this .swp file. In my case I used following command and it worked fine.

rm .MERGE_MSG.swp

answered Aug 25 '19 at 11:05

Abdur Rahman

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To add to this: The folder may be hidden so you first have to run: cd .git – ClownBaby Sep 10 '19 at 05:18
rm: .MERGE_MSG.swp: No such file or directory – ScottyBlades Feb 17 '22 at 22:58
To run the command, if your .MERGE_MSG.swp is hidden then must need go to the directory where the file is exist. @ScottyBlades – Abdur Rahman Feb 17 '22 at 23:26

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 16 '17 at 10:36

I've also had this error when trying to pull the changes into a branch which is not created from the upstream branch from which I'm trying to pull.

Eg - This creates a new branch matching night-version of upstream

git checkout upstream/night-version -b testnightversion

This creates a branch testmaster in local which matches the master branch of upstream.

git checkout upstream/master -b testmaster

Now if I try to pull the changes of night-version into testmaster branch leads to this error.

git pull upstream night-version //while I'm in `master` cloned branch

I managed to solve this by navigating to proper branch and pull the changes.

git checkout testnightversion
git pull upstream night-version // works fine.

score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

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More info... Some times .swp files might be holded by vm that was running in backgroung. You may see permission denied message when try to delete the files.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Mar 31 '20 at 19:30

Ramakrishna Talla

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That image is a mystery to me. – Yunnosch Jan 11 '23 at 20:15

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 11 '23 at 05:35

This error usually comes when you try to update/rebase the feature/child branch with the master branch. It can be simply solved using the below git commands, First of all, Just type E and hit the Enter button, then write the below commands one by one:

Press i (i for insert)
write your merge message
Press esc (escape)
write:wq (write & quit)
then press enter button

Found a swap file by the name

7 Answers7

Feb, 2022 Update:

Linked