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From: dattier@vpnet.chi.il.us (David W. Tamkin)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: :wq
Message-ID: <1991Apr02.230226.7530@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Date: 2 Apr 91 23:02:26 GMT
References: <2900@wn1.sci.kun.nl> <1991Mar28.155305.8204@vpnet.chi.il.us> <1991Mar29.162034.12996@chinet.chi.il.us>
Organization: VPNet Public Access Unix, Villa Park IL  60181-2206
Lines: 43

les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) wrote in
<1991Mar29.162034.12996@chinet.chi.il.us>:

| In article <1991Mar28.155305.8204@vpnet.chi.il.us> [I wrote]:

| >If only vi didn't clear the [Modified] flag when you write to an
| >outside file; that's the real problem.
| 
| Actually there is an easy work-around for this.  Just remember to do
| a :w <enter> before you :w other_file.  That keeps the file consistent
| with the modified flag.

That's the trick: remembering to :w <enter> first or, if you decide to make
no more modifications, to make and undo a trivial one after :w <savefile> and
before :wq or ZZ or :x.  I learned that the hard way, after getting burned
several times by it, learning about it only when regular correspondents, who
knew I wasn't a nutcase, told me that mail they received from me consisted of
exactly the text they had sent me, set off by citation characters.  I
couldn't figure out what the heck was undoing my editing until I hit on this
problem with vi.

| [:x]
| >| - it gives you a second chance if the write failed

| >It does?  I didn't know that.  The only time a write ever failed on me the
| >whole system locked up and I lost all my changes anyway, and I wasn't trying
| >to quit vi, just to :w to save the changes so far.

| It won't fix a system crash of course, but you can recover from things
| like not having write permission or file system full errors if you
| can save a copy somewhere else.  :wq exits regardless.

The :w attempt *caused* the system crash.  The disks were full to bursting (I
hadn't learned about df yet; if I'd known, I'd have been ready for the risk
and :%p'ed to capture the text in my own computer before trying to :w) and
the system was already gasping; my :w attempt was the coup de grace.

[Note to the poster named, I think, Hoffmeyer who said that he prefers :wq to
ZZ even though three keystrokes are more than two: :wq requires <enter>, so
it's actually four keystrokes.  I imagine that you still prefer it.]

David Tamkin  PO Box 7002  Des Plaines IL  60018-7002  dattier@vpnet.chi.il.us
GEnie:D.W.TAMKIN  CIS:73720,1570  MCIMail:426-1818  708 518 6769  312 693 0591