The first time I got stuck in VI, cell phones didn’t have internet yet. We were a one computer household. I had printed out some instructions on how to modify XF86 configs. I had tried typing out every version of [ESC] I could come up with.
If it wouldn’t have been for VI I would have been into Linux probably a decade earlier. It’s now my editor of choice but it probably wouldn’t have killed them to detect control x and give you a little hint text somewhere.
EDIT: I’m a Linux Performance Engineer with 15 years under my belt and I use a Mac as my daily driver. Including when I gasp interface with Linux computers because it’s always a combination of ssh and configuration management of some form. Telling me that Mac users don’t use vim is, on its face, one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. It’s a text based interface. I could do it with Windows, but I’m faster on Macs.
:x also writes (same as :wq). :q! is force quit. If you accidentally made changes then :q will give an error and :x will write those changes. So :q! Is you safest bet if you need to gtfo.
Add comment