I use vim as a viewer in midnight commandder and I want to quickly view and close a file. How can I map the escape key to :q in normal mode so that vim exits only if nothing is changed?
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Why not use an actual "viewer" instead of an editor?– romainlCommented May 3, 2015 at 7:27
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Because it gives me much more capability such as configable code highlight. And I can edit the file in the case I like and exit with no pain if it is not modified.– OxyCommented May 4, 2015 at 17:32
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1 Answer
To do it for just the current vim session,
type the following commands (in vim). (Spaces are added for clarity.
Do not type a space except where I have indicated Space.)
: m a p Space Ctrl+V Esc Space : q Ctrl+V Enter Enter
To do it for just the rest of the current Terminal session, type the following commands (in Terminal; i.e., the shell). (Line break(s) are added for clarity. Type the following all on one line; do not type Enter except where I have indicated Enter.)
E X I N I T =
" : m a p Space Ctrl+V Esc Space : q Ctrl+V Enter " Enter
and then
export EXINITEnter
To make the changes “permanent” (i.e., until you change the files back),
put the above commands (the EXINIT="…" and export EXINIT)
into your .bash_profile and/or .bashrc.
(You can put them together on the same line, separating them with ;.
You may be able to shorten this by combining them into export EXINIT="…".)
This won’t take effect until you login again,
or possibly until you start a new shell,
unless you just type the EXINIT commands
or source the file into which you put the EXINIT commands.
Note: if you aren't using bash as your primary shell, you may need to modify the above for your shell.
Alternatively, try putting the :map … command into your .exrc file.
In case this isn’t obvious,
:map string1 string2
(in vi / vim) creates a mapping (translation) so that,
when you type string1 (in command mode),
the editor acts like you typed string2.
And Ctrl+V is the super-escape character
that tells both vi / vim and the shell
(in fact, probably all programs, or at least most of them)
that the following character is meant to be interpreted
as a literal textual character, and not as a control character.
Note that Ctrl+V followed by Enter
gives you a carriage return character, which is often displayed as ^M;
but, in a :map string2,
that is interpreted as an Enter.
answered May 1, 2015 at 21:28
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Thanks G-Man. The first approach works perfectly well (but is useless as you know). The second one does not work. I am on Mac OS. Do you have any idea why it's not working?– OxyCommented May 1, 2015 at 21:56
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I followed the same procedure with
~/.exrcfile and it does not work as well.– OxyCommented May 1, 2015 at 21:59 -
@Oxy: I edited the answer to clarify possible misunderstanding. I don’t know why it isn’t working. Can you get other commands through into
vimby any of those techniques? For example, do you already have a~/.exrcwhose contents are working? If you typeexport EXINIT=":map q jjjj"; vim some_file, does (q) make your cursor go down four lines? If you typeexport EXINIT=":set list"; vim some_file, does it show$at the ends of lines (and does it show tabs as^I)? Commented May 1, 2015 at 22:25 -
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Well,
vishould bevithe world around, but OS X isn't Linux. Try researchingvion OS X (start withman vi, and then search Super User, and then Google) to see whether it has some different way of letting you pass in initialization commands. Commented May 1, 2015 at 22:35