How do I exit the Vim editor ?
Solution : Hit the Esc key to enter “Normal mode”. Then you can type : to enter “Command-line mode”. A colon (:) will appear at the bottom of the screen and you can type in one of the following commands. To execute a command, press the Enter key.
- :q to quit (short for :quit)
- :q! to quit without saving (short for :quit!)
- :wq to write and quit
- :wq! to write and quit even if file has only read permission (if file does not have write permission: force write)
- : x to write and quit (similar to :wq, but only write if there are changes)
- :exit to write and exit (same as : x)
- :qa to quit all (short for :quitall)
- :cq to quit without saving and make Vim return non-zero error (i.e. exit with error)
You can also exit Vim directly from “Normal mode” by typing ZZ to save and quit (same as : x) or ZQ to just quit (same as :q!). (Note that case is important here. ZZ and zz do not mean the same thing.)
Vim has extensive help – that you can access with the :help command – where you can find answers to all your questions and a tutorial for beginners.