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The command to save a file in Vim is :w . To save the file without exiting the editor, switch back to normal mode by pressing Esc , type :w and hit Enter . There is also an update command :up , which writes the buffer to the file only if there are unsaved changes.
To save a file in Vim / vi, press Esc key, type :w and hit Enter key. One can save a file and quit vim / Vi by pressing Esc key, type :x and hit Enter key.
Type w after the colon and hit Enter. This will save in Vim the changes made to the file, without exiting.
They will disappear as your typing extends down the screen. To close a file to which no changes have been made, hit ESC (the Esc key, which is located in the upper left hand corner of the keyboard), then type :q (a colon followed by a lower case "q") and finally press ENTER.
This deletes the buffer (which translates to close the file)
:bd
As already mentioned, you're looking for :bd, however this doesn't completely remove the buffer, it's still accessible:
:e foo
:e bar
:buffers
1 #h "foo" line 1
2 %a "bar" line 1
Press ENTER or type command to continue
:bd 2
:buffers
1 %a "foo" line 1
Press ENTER or type command to continue
:b 2
2 bar
You may instead want :bw which completely removes it.
:bw 2
:b 2
E86: Buffer 2 does not exist
Not knowing about :bw bugged me for quite a while.
If you have multiple split windows in your Vim window then :bd closes the split window of the current file, so I like to use something a little more advanced:
map fc <Esc>:call CleanClose(1)
map fq <Esc>:call CleanClose(0)
function! CleanClose(tosave)
if (a:tosave == 1)
w!
endif
let todelbufNr = bufnr("%")
let newbufNr = bufnr("#")
if ((newbufNr != -1) && (newbufNr != todelbufNr) && buflisted(newbufNr))
exe "b".newbufNr
else
bnext
endif
if (bufnr("%") == todelbufNr)
new
endif
exe "bd".todelbufNr
endfunction
:[N]bd[elete][!] *:bd* *:bdel* *:bdelete* *E516*
:bd[elete][!] [N]
Unload buffer [N] (default: current buffer) and delete it from
the buffer list. If the buffer was changed, this fails,
unless when [!] is specified, in which case changes are lost.
The file remains unaffected. Any windows for this buffer are
closed. If buffer [N] is the current buffer, another buffer
will be displayed instead. This is the most recent entry in
the jump list that points into a loaded buffer.
Actually, the buffer isn't completely deleted, it is removed
from the buffer list |unlisted-buffer| and option values,
variables and mappings/abbreviations for the buffer are
cleared.
If you've saved the last file already, then :enew is your friend (:enew! if you don't want to save the last file). Note that the original file will still be in your buffer list (the one accessible via :ls).
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