this is something that had been bothering me for ages. i am one of those who keeps virtually all my info in one notes.txt file - no fancy GTD system, just a bunch of text that i noodle with on an ad hoc basis. i use vim to manage it, and it stays open 24x7 on multiple machines (via screen - something i’ll go into another time.)
but, the problem with keeping the window open is that, at least on my fedora boxes, a system cron script comes along once a week and cleans out the /tmp directory – including the temp files that vim is using to keep state in my editing session. this makes me have to save/close/reopen vim, usually when i try to launch some external command like sort.
the solution i found was to touch vim’s temp file daily, making it look like a “new” file to the system cleanup script. vim makes temp file directories in a format like this:
<pre>
/tmp/v\d??????
</pre>
so, in my personal crontabs, i use this to ferret these out and touch them up-to-date:
<pre>
find /tmp -follow -type d -name v?????? -exec touch {} \; 2>/dev/null
</pre>
works like a charm.