Preferences.xml file recovery

> but inkscape offers no options to resolve this problem.

Delete the empty file and Inkscape will recreate it with default settings.

Related to pr duplicate of
 Bug #500961 “Preferences dialog / location of preferences.xml”
 <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/500961>
(a mechanism to reset all the preferences from within the user interface)

@ suv: Thank you, deleted the file works as you mention.

I had already done that before filling the bug though. My point is that it would be nice if I was given the choice to fix this automatically...

You could just cache the old preferences.xml file and replace it with the factory settings. And then simply pop up a message that informs the user about the error...??? After all, inkscape messed the file up when trying to rewrite it, because my system was running out of memory...

@Joh M.K. is right with the solution.
It makes no sense to get these errors, I did not know how to fix it for a while, until I found this bug report.

PS: @~suv solution does fix the problem.

Marking as duplicate of Bug #170572 "Revert to default settings". Don't hesitate to revert and comment if you think it's a different request.

Reverting the duplicate status, and turning the report into a wishlist to manage corrupted preference.xml files.

Related:
* Bug #513185: Check for emergency saved files on startup
* Bug #492606: Automatic Autosave Recovery
* Bug #171424: crash recovery

We could use the revert button from Bug #170572 "Revert to default settings" to force the creation of a new preferences.xml file, or a dedicated dialog as suggested in the related reports listed above.

Inkscape still corrupts the file from time time - probably related to WACOM because it has a bug in very long lines like that:

 <group
     id="devices">

    <group
       keys="&lt;Primary&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Mod2&gt;&lt;Mod3&gt;&lt;Mod4&gt;&lt;Mod5&gt;;&lt;Primary&gt;&lt;Shift&gt;&lt;Alt&gt;&lt;Mod2&gt;&lt;Mod3&gt;&lt;Mod4&gt;&lt;Mod5&gt;;&lt;Primary&gt;&lt;Sh

...

Also it sometimes puts </group> or </inkscape></group> at the end of the file.
Resetting preferences is not a solution - because we put time into making our own preferences. Right now I fix the XML by editing it and deleting the line that is corrupt.

Same problem here on Windows version. Thanks to @Magnes (magnesus2) I opened the preferences.xml and I realized that the xls was abnormally finished

</inkscape>
scape>

Problem solved by deleting the last line containing "scape>"

i saved a copy of my preferences.xml at another spot of my file-system, where i can get it back, if i have this error.

So my special preferences-vaules are save