What is the difference between :q and :qa! in Vim?

Question

I'm quite new to Vim so I first checked the help.txt file to inform myself about Vim. Here I saw the following:

Close this window: Use ":q".
Get out of Vim: Use ":qa!" (careful, all changes are lost!).

The first one closes Vim. The second one also. Wouldn't all changes also go with :q? To be clear, I use the vim GUI not a command prompt.

edit: It's more about the difference, not the actual meaning. The almost same explanation in the help.txt file confused me.

Possible duplicate of [How to exit the Vim editor?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11828270/how-to-exit-the-vim-editor) — dlmeetei, Aug 04 '17 at 13:42

score 43 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 04 '17 at 13:41

43

The key difference is the exclamation mark here. :q will warn you about unsaved changes and will not let you exit. :q! will not warn you.

See also :help quit (type that in vim)

answered Aug 04 '17 at 13:41

Otto

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Thank you, but what about :qa! – MCK Aug 04 '17 at 13:43
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The `a` means 'all'. If you have multiple buffers loaded, `q` will quit the current visible one and jump to the next. `qa` will quit all buffers and exit vim. – Otto Aug 04 '17 at 13:45
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A good habit I have learned into my finger is to quit Vim with: `:wqa`. Saves and quits all buffers, and the keys are all close to each other. – Øystein Schønning-Johansen Aug 04 '17 at 13:47
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@oysteijo `:xa` is even shorter. – phd Aug 04 '17 at 15:35
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OP asked for something very specific and you answered whatever you felt to answer. – solr Dec 15 '20 at 18:30

score 37 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 11 '20 at 18:50

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I don't see any of the answers specifically addressing the meaning of 'a' so thought I'd contribute:

:q is quit, as you know, but warns you didn't save

:qa is quit, all buffers, without saving but you'll get that same warning

:qa! is quit all buffers, without saving, and without a warning

answered Feb 11 '20 at 18:50

Robert Houghton

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`w` is for "write". – young_souvlaki Jan 01 '22 at 21:54

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 20 '20 at 23:33

When you have some changes and use :q, it fails and throws an error stating No write since last change. In order to quit from the Vim without saving changes, you should write :q!, it will quit the Vim and ! will work as a negation, which will negate the write operation.

When you fire :qa!, it quits the vim and doesn't throw an error mentioned above as you have added !. And there is no argument like a if you see man vi. (Just to note, arguments are case sensitive and -a and -A are treated differently)

In order to save the file and then quit the vim, you should use :wq, as it will first save the file and then quit the Vim.

What is the difference between :q and :qa! in Vim?

3 Answers3