What's the difference between :q and :bd command when we have many buffers?

Question

I'm a beginner in vim and I've a simple question.
What is the difference between :q and :bd command when we have many buffers ?

Thank you for your answers.

Answer 1

:q quit current window.

• only one window: quit vim.
• if you have more windows opened (splits): it closes the current window without deleting the buffer. You can see the buffer by :ls

:bd (without argument) delete(unload) current buffer

• only one window: delete the current buffer, but won't close the window (quit vim).
• more splits: delete the current buffer, and close the current window split.

you can test it with :ls to monitor the buffer changes.