How to save file in linux

How To Save a File in Vi / Vim Text Editor

How to save a file in Vi / Vim editor in Linux

The procedure is as follows:

1. Open vim in Linux. For example, type: vim test.c
2. Write code or programe
3. Save file in vim by pressing ESC and ZZ
4. This will save and exit in vim or vi text editor running on Unix or Linux

Let us see some more examples.

Save a File in Vim Text Editor

The vi or vim is a text editor who has three modes: command mode, input mode, and ex mode. When starting, vim or vi begins in command mode. One can press Esc key to return to command mode and issue various commands. To create a new file, open a terminal and then type:
$ vi demo.txt

vi / vim always begins in command mode. You can press [Esc] key anytime to return to command mode. Press i to insert text. To save and exit from vi / vim, press [Esc] key and type ZZ:
ZZ
To see list of your saved file use the cat command. Run:
$ ls
$ cat demo.txt
To just save file and not to exit to shell prompt, press [Esc] key and type w
w

vi ex Mode File Saving Commands

To get into the ex mode, press [Esc] key and then : (the colon). For example, to exit from vi saving changes, press [Esc], : (colon) and type wq:
:wq

Fig.01: vi / vim write and quit command in action

• No ads and tracking
• In-depth guides for developers and sysadmins at Opensourceflare✨
• Join my Patreon to support independent content creators and start reading latest guides:
  • How to set up Redis sentinel cluster on Ubuntu or Debian Linux
  • How To Set Up SSH Keys With YubiKey as two-factor authentication (U2F/FIDO2)
  • How to set up Mariadb Galera cluster on Ubuntu or Debian Linux
  • A podman tutorial for beginners – part I (run Linux containers without Docker and in daemonless mode)
  • How to protect Linux against rogue USB devices using USBGuard

Join Patreon ➔

Common Vi / Vim File Savings Related Commands (ex mode)

You need to press [Esc] key followed by the colon (:) before typing the following commands:

Command	Description
q	Quit
q!	Quit without saving changes i.e. discard changes and quit file
r fileName	Read data from file called fileName
w	Save file and continue editing
wq	Write and quit (save and exit)
x	Same as wq command i.e. write and quit (save and exit)
w fileName	Write to file called fileName (save as)
w! fileName	Overwrite to file called fileName (save as forcefully)

See Vi editor command keys wiki page for more information.

🐧 Get the latest tutorials on Linux, Open Source & DevOps via

Источник

How to Save a File in Vi / Vim Editor in Linux

It is true that learning Vi/Vim – a well-known text editor in the Linux ecosystem, is not as easy as learning Nano or Emacs, as it requires a little effort which is worthwhile.

Many people are afraid of learning it, but seriously, for no important reasons. In this short article, intended for Vi/Vim text editor newbies, we’ll learn a few basic commands; how to save a file after writing or modifying its content.

In most of the today’s Linux distributions, Vi/Vim editor comes with pre-installed, if not install the full version of Vim (Debian systems provide vim-tiny with less features), simply run this command:

Note: To use it’s latest features, install Vim 8.0.

To open or create a file using Vim, run the following command, then press i to insert text into it (insert mode):

Press ‘i’ to Insert Mode in Vim Editor

Once you have modified a file, press [Esc] shift to the command mode and press :w and hit [Enter] as shown below.

Save File in Vim

To save the file and exit at the same time, you can use the ESC and 😡 key and hit [Enter] . Optionally, press [Esc] and type Shift + Z Z to save and exit the file.

Save and Exit File in Vim

To save the file content to a new file named newname, use :w newname or 😡 newname and hit [Enter] .

From here, you can now move over to learn common Vi/Vim tips and tricks, understand the different modes and so much more:

That’s it! In an upcoming article, we’ll show you how to exit Vim text editor with simple commands. Remember to drop your comments via the feedback form below.

If You Appreciate What We Do Here On TecMint, You Should Consider:

TecMint is the fastest growing and most trusted community site for any kind of Linux Articles, Guides and Books on the web. Millions of people visit TecMint! to search or browse the thousands of published articles available FREELY to all.

If you like what you are reading, please consider buying us a coffee ( or 2 ) as a token of appreciation.

We are thankful for your never ending support.

Источник

How To: Vi / Vim Save And Quit The Editor Command

Tutorial details
Difficulty level	Easy
Root privileges	No
Requirements	vi / vim
Est. reading time	Less than 1 min

vi or vim (Vi IMproved) is text editor or a programmers text editor. You can edit programs or configuration files on the Linux/Unix server. Vim is upwards compatible to Vi. This page explains how to save a file in Vim or vi and quit the editor under Linux or Unix-like systems.

Vim Save And Quit The Editor Command

The procedure to save a file in vim / vi and quit the editor is as follows:

1. Open the terminal application in Linux or Unix
2. Next, open a file in vim / vi, type: vim filename
3. To save a file in Vim / vi, press Esc key, type :w and hit Enter key
4. One can save a file and quit vim / Vi by pressing Esc key, type 😡 and hit Enter key

Let us see all commands and examples in details.

How to open a file in Vim / Vi

You can start vi/vim by typing the following command:
vim file
vi file
vim [options] filename
vim helloworld.sh

Understanding vim modes

When we start vim/vi text editor, we are in normal mode. This mode allows use to use vim commands and navigate around the file as per our needs. In order to edit text, you need to enter the insert mode by pressing i key. This way, we can edit our program or configuration files such as /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.

Of course, you can go back to normal mode by pressing Esc key again.

How to save and quit the vi or vim text editor

To save and quit the vi or vim editor with saving any changes you have made:

1. If you are currently in insert or append mode, press Esc key.
2. Press : (colon). The cursor should reappear at the lower left corner of the screen beside a colon prompt.
3. Enter the following command (type 😡 and press Enter key):

Press ENTER key

This will quit the editor, and all changes you have made to the document will be saved to the file.

Use x to save a file and exit:

Fig.01: Vi / vim save and quit demo.

How to trash all changes in vi/vim

If you do not want to save any changes, first press Esc key. To exit Vim without saving changes press :q! followed by ENTER key.

Getting more help about vim commands

Want to learn vim text editor? Start the vim tutor by typing the following command at the Linux, macOS, and Unix-like system:
$ vimtutor
$ vimtutor it
$ vimtutor fr

vimtutor in action

• No ads and tracking
• In-depth guides for developers and sysadmins at Opensourceflare✨
• Join my Patreon to support independent content creators and start reading latest guides:
  • How to set up Redis sentinel cluster on Ubuntu or Debian Linux
  • How To Set Up SSH Keys With YubiKey as two-factor authentication (U2F/FIDO2)
  • How to set up Mariadb Galera cluster on Ubuntu or Debian Linux
  • A podman tutorial for beginners – part I (run Linux containers without Docker and in daemonless mode)
  • How to protect Linux against rogue USB devices using USBGuard

Join Patreon ➔

Summary of vim/vi commands

Command	Description
Press the ESC key Type :q! Press the ENTER key	Exit vim without saving changes i.e. discards any changes you made.
Press the ESC key Type :wq Press the ENTER key	Save a file and exit.
Press the ESC key Type 😡 Press the ENTER key	Save a file and exit.

Conclusion

You learned how to save a file in vim and exit the text editor using various vim commands. See the vim site or the following pages for more information.

🐧 Get the latest tutorials on Linux, Open Source & DevOps via

Category	List of Unix and Linux commands
Documentation	help • mandb • man • pinfo
Disk space analyzers	df • duf • ncdu • pydf
File Management	cat • cp • less • mkdir • more • tree
Firewall	Alpine Awall • CentOS 8 • OpenSUSE • RHEL 8 • Ubuntu 16.04 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04
Linux Desktop Apps	Skype • Spotify • VLC 3
Modern utilities	bat • exa
Network Utilities	NetHogs • dig • host • ip • nmap
OpenVPN	CentOS 7 • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Debian 8/9 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04
Package Manager	apk • apt
Processes Management	bg • chroot • cron • disown • fg • glances • gtop • jobs • killall • kill • pidof • pstree • pwdx • time • vtop
Searching	ag • grep • whereis • which
Shell builtins	compgen • echo • printf
Text processing	cut • rev
User Information	groups • id • lastcomm • last • lid/libuser-lid • logname • members • users • whoami • who • w
WireGuard VPN	Alpine • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Firewall • Ubuntu 20.04

Comments on this entry are closed.

w!= save without exiting
q!= exit without saving

To save and quit:
If you are currently in insert or append mode, press Esc key.
Press: (semi-colon) The cursor should reappear at the lower left corner of the screen beside a colon prompt.
Enter the following command (type wq! and press Enter key).
🙂

Press: (colon) The cursor should reappear at the lower left corner of the screen beside a colon prompt.
colon is right.

none of these commands are working

Hit the ‘esc’ key and it will take you out of the cursor mode and give you a cursor at the lower left hand of the screen. Now enter wq! and it will save and quit.

Worked for me (Ubuntu 16.4). Thanks

Thanks for sharing knowledge!
Worked just perfectly!

worked for me too on Ubuntu. thank you!

The theme become so popular in the entire Www, so I’ve created fun page

Источник

How to Save the Output of a Command to a File in Linux Terminal [Beginner’s Tip]

Last updated April 17, 2021 By Abhishek Prakash 3 Comments

When you run a command or script in the Linux terminal, it prints the output on the screen for your immediate viewing.

There will be times when you need to save the output to a file for future references. Now, you can surely copy and paste in Linux terminal but there are better ways to save the output of a shell script or command in Linux command line. Let me show them to you.

Method 1: Use redirection to save command output to file in Linux

You can use redirection in Linux for this purpose. With redirection operator, instead of showing the output on the screen, it goes to the provided file.

• The > redirects the command output to a file replacing any existing content on the file.
• The >> redirects adds the command output at the end of the existing content (if any) of the file.

Use the STDOUT redirection operator > for redirecting the output to a file like this:

If the file.txt doesn’t exist, it will be created automatically. If you use the > redirect again with the same file, the file content is replaced by the new output.

The example below demonstrates it better. It first saves the output of ls -l command. And then later, it replaces the content of the file with the output of ls *.c command.

If you don’t want to lose the content of the existing file while saving the output of a script or command, use the redirection operation in append mode with >>.

This example demonstrates it better:

Even here if the file doesn’t exist, it is created automatically.

Bonus Tip: Save Linux command output as well as error to a file

If your Linux command returns an error, it doesn’t get saved in the file. You can save both the command output and command error in the same file using 2>&1 like this:

command > file.txt 2>&1

Basically, 0 stands for standard input, 1 for standard output and 2 for standard error. Here, you are redirecting (>) standard error (2) to same address (&) as standard output (1).

Method 2: Use tee command to display the output and save it to a file as well

By the way, did you notice that when you send the command output to a file, you cannot see it anymore on the display? The tee command in Linux solves this problem for you.

Like a tee pipe that sends water stream into two directions, the tee command send the output to the display as well as to a file (or as input to another command). You can use it like this:

Again, the file will be created automatically, if it doesn’t exist already.

You may also use the tee command in append mode with option -a in this manner:

Let me demonstrate it with some easy to follow examples:

I have used simple Linux commands in my examples. But rest assured, you can use these methods to save the output of bash scripts as well.

Note: Avoid pipe pitfall while saving command output to file

You probably are familiar with pipe redirection. You may use it to combine Linux commands but you cannot pipe the output to a file. It will result in error that filename command not found:

This is because pipe redirects the output of one command to input of another command. And in this case, you give it a file name while it was expecting a command.

If you are new to Linux command line, I hope this quick tutorial added to your Linux knowledge a bit. I/O redirection is an essential concept that one should be aware of.

As always, questions and suggestions are always welcome.

Like what you read? Please share it with others.

Источник