>ex/vi: Error: /var/tmp/vi.recover: Permission denied
>ex/vi: Modifications not recoverable if the session fails
>ex/vi: Error: foobar: No such file or directory
>ex/vi: Error: Unable to create temporary file: No such file or directory
>...
>% ls -ld / /tmp /var/tmp
>drwxr-xr-x  16 root  wheel  512 Jun 17 16:09 //
>drwxrwsrwt   2 root  wheel  512 Jun 18 02:54 /tmp/
>drwxrwsrwt   3 root  wheel  512 Jun 17 17:05 /var/tmp/

it sounds like you're missing a /var/tmp/vi.recover directory.  make
sure you have one (it might not be there), make sure root owns it
(someone else may own it), and make sure it has the right mode (it
should be the same as /tmp and /var/tmp).

-- 
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