Exit Vim How to exit Vim

To exit Vim:

1. If you are in edit mode, first press the esc key.
2. Then enter :wq + return to save and exit.

To exit without saving, you can run :q! + return

Comments

[David Wickes]

Come now, we're just scratching the surface...

Given you're in command mode:

• :wqa will write, quit all buffers (in case you have more than one)
• :x will also save and quit
• :ex as above
• ZZ will save and quit
• ZQ will just quit
• :1,5wq will save only lines 1 to 5 and quit

There's more. A lot more. Interested? :h quit will take you to the Vim help section on quitting.

[Jeremy Schuurmans]

Haha! Absolutely! I was hoping for comments just like this. Thank you, and keep the Vim tricks coming!

[Ben Lovy]

It's rare that you would ever want to

You must be far more organized than I am. I feel like I do this all the time.

[Jeremy Schuurmans]

That's fair. I wish I was much more organized than I am. It was just drilled in me by all my teachers to never close my editor without saving, so I do it almost as a reflex. I used Atom before starting to learn Vim, and would always <Ctrl-S> before exiting, so now it's :wq all the time.

[Ben Lovy]

I think part of it is that I also use Vim as a quick way to just read a file, to reference it or check a value. When I do that, I want to ensure I haven't inadvertently made an edit. Vim is helpful in that it defaults to normal mode, but :q! gives me some extra peace of mind that I haven't done something dumb.

[Jeremy Schuurmans]

Good point! I'll keep that in mind for the future as well. I'm looking forward to learning all the things I can do with it aside from writing code more efficiently.

[Mike Lockhart]

+1

"How do I undo in vim? Ugh. I hate vim. Stuff this, I'll do it over."

ESC :q!

goes to find a friendly editor, or SCP the file to workstation

SSHFS and VS-Code's remote extension are saving my sanity.

[Matthew Collison]

It's day 728

I'm still stuck in Vim

With 2.54839e30 possible key-press combinations, it has become evident that my human typing capabilities alone are not going to brute force the phrase that will allow my exit

I am now on the 7th revision of my quantum computer program in an attempt to solve this issue

Send help

[Mike Lockhart]

😂

[Ghislain LEVEQUE]

To exit without saving, I suggest

:!kill -9 $PPID

[Chris Stead]

I was taught to pronounce :wq as "write and quit" and :q! As "quit, dammit". 😊

[Jeremy Schuurmans]

😂

[Mike Lockhart]

I wish I could find the original where I saw this...

Gandalf, reading a battered old file from the server:

They have taken the bridge… and the second hall.
We have barred the gates… but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes.
Drums… drums… in the deep
:wq :w :q!
A shadow moves in the dark
:x :x! :quit :help
^Z ^C ^X ^[^[x ^D
We cannot get out. They are coming

[Vlastimil Pospichal]

Ctrl-Z
... shell commands
fg

[Dinesh Pandiyan]

To remember when to use :wq and :q! without getting confused, I always say it out loud.

wq = write (to disk) and quit
q! = quit without writing (to disk)

[lizard_ohama]

:saveas filename

[John Johnson Okah]

Please can someone tell me why this rugged editor is worth using.
I find it COOL but FRUSTRATING.