Chapter 06: Vim Basics: Saving Your Work and Exiting

published:

tags: [ #vim, #editor, #cli, #tutorial, #education, #kids, #children, #young, #learners, #ttk, #vim basics, #saving, #exiting ]

Hello, Vim Finisher!

You've learned how to move and edit in Vim. That's super important! But what's just as important is knowing how to save your changes and leave Vim when you're done. Otherwise, all your hard work might disappear!

Command Mode: Your Saving Spells

To save and exit in Vim, you need to be in a special mode called Command Mode. You get there from Normal Mode by typing a colon (:). When you type :, you'll see it appear at the bottom of your Vim window. This means Vim is waiting for a command!

Remember: Always press Escape first to make sure you are in Normal Mode before trying to enter Command Mode with :.

Saving Your Changes: :w

  • :w: (for "write") This spell tells Vim to save all the changes you've made to your file.
    • Type :
    • Then type w
    • Then press Enter

You'll see a message at the bottom, usually saying something like filename.txt written, and how many lines and characters were saved.

Exiting Vim: :q, :wq, :q!

Once you've saved your work, you'll want to close Vim.

  • :q: (for "quit") This spell tells Vim to close the file.

    • Type :
    • Then type q
    • Then press Enter

    Important: This only works if you haven't made any changes since your last save. If you try to quit without saving, Vim will tell you: No write since last change (add ! to override).

  • :wq: (for "write and quit") This is a super handy spell! It saves your changes and then quits Vim, all in one go!

    • Type :
    • Then type wq
    • Then press Enter

  • :q!: (for "quit, forcefully") This spell is for when you want to quit Vim without saving any changes you made since the last time you saved. Be careful with this one, as it will throw away unsaved work!

    • Type :
    • Then type q!
    • Then press Enter

    You might use this if you made a lot of mistakes and just want to start over from the last saved version.

Putting it Together: Practice Time

  1. Open a text file with Vim (vim practice.txt).
  2. Add some new words (by pressing i to enter Insert Mode, typing, then Escape to go back to Normal Mode).
  3. Now, try to quit without saving:
    • Press :
    • Type q
    • Press Enter
    • Vim will probably stop you and say No write since last change.
  4. Now, save your changes:
    • Press :
    • Type w
    • Press Enter
  5. Now that you've saved, you can quit:
    • Press :
    • Type q
    • Press Enter
  6. Open the file again (vim practice.txt). You should see all your saved changes!
  7. Make some new changes, but this time, save and quit all at once:
    • Press :
    • Type wq
    • Press Enter

Fantastic! You've learned the most important basic spells for using Vim. You can now open files, move around, make changes, save your work, and exit. You're well on your way to becoming a Vim master!