Jeremy Schuurmans

Posted on Sep 19, 2019 • Updated on Jan 19, 2021

Exit Vim How to exit Vim

#vim #productivity #beginners #todayilearned

To exit Vim:

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

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

Top comments (18)

David Wickes • Sep 19 '19

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 • Sep 19 '19

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

Ben Lovy • Sep 19 '19

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 • Sep 19 '19 • Edited

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 • Sep 19 '19 • Edited

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 • Sep 19 '19

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 • Sep 25 '19

"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 • Sep 21 '19 • Edited

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 • Sep 25 '19

😂

Ghislain LEVEQUE • Sep 20 '19 • Edited

To exit without saving, I suggest

:!kill -9 $PPID

Chris Stead • Sep 21 '19

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

Jeremy Schuurmans • Sep 21 '19

😂

Mike Lockhart • Sep 25 '19 • Edited

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