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Showing content from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11828270/how-to-exit-the-vim-editor below:

vi - How do I exit Vim?

Pictures are worth a thousand Unix commands and options:

I draw this to my students each semester and they seem to grasp vi afterwards.

Vi is a finite state machine with three main states.

It starts in COMMAND mode, where you perform editor functions using very short keystroke sequences, blindly. You know what you are doing; this isn't for amateurs.

When you want to actually edit text, you should go to INSERT mode with some keystroke; common ones include:

• i: insert just before the cursor
• I: move to beginning of line and (i)nsert
• a: append just after the cursor
• A: move to end of line and (a)ppend
• o: open a new line just below the current line
• O: open a new line just above the current line
• R: enter REPLACE mode (similar to INSERT mode)

Now, answering the question: exiting.

You can exit vi from EX mode:

• q - if you haven't made any modifications, or saved them beforehand
• q! - ignores any modifications and quit
• wq - save and quit
• x - this is similar to wq

w and x accept a file name parameter. If vi already knows the filename to use (e.g. it was started with vi file), you need not give it here again.

At last, the most important: how can you reach EX mode?

EX mode is for long commands that you can see typing at the bottom line of the screen. From COMMAND mode, you press colon, :, and a colon will appear at the bottom line, where you can type the above commands.

From INSERT mode, you need to push ESC, i.e. the Escape button, going to COMMAND mode, and then: to go to EX mode.

If you are unsure, push ESC and that will bring you to command mode.

The robust method is ESC-:-x-Enter which saves your file and quits.

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