Slackware Linux Essentials
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16.5 Quitting vi

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One way to quit vi is through :wq, -which will save the current buffer before quitting. You can also quit without saving with -:q or (more commonly) :q!. The latter is used -when you've modified the file but do not wish to save any changes to it.

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On occasion, your machine might crash or vi might crash. -However, both elvis and vim will take -steps to minimize the damage to any open buffers. Both editors save the open buffers to a -temporary file on occasion. This file is usually named similarly to the open file, but -with a dot at the beginning. This makes the file hidden.

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This temporary file gets removed once the editor quits under normal conditions. This -means that the temporary copy will still be around if something crashes. When you go back -to edit the file again, you will be prompted for what action to take. In most cases, a -large amount of your unsaved work can be recovered. elvis will -also send you a mail (from Graceland, oddly enough :) telling you that a backup copy -exists.

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