How do I close all open tabs at once?

Question

If I have 10 tabs opened, I have to close each one using ":q" separately.

How can I close them all at once?

Solution 1

Shortest/simplest/fastest way would be:

:qa

To save work in all tabs and quit:

:wqa

Solution 2

I often use :tabo (:tabonly) to close all other tabs.

Solution 3

That can be done with the following command (in normal or escape mode):

:tabdo :q

"tabdo" apparently executes the command for all the open tabs.

Solution 4

Adding to what fuentesjr said:

:qa!

Will force quit all tabs, if you don't care about saving.

Solution 5

You can use any of these Vim Ex commands to Exit Multiple Windows And Buffers:

1. :qa :qall

   Exit Vim, unless there are some buffers which have been changed. (Use :bmod to go to the next modified buffer). When 'autowriteall' is set all changed buffers will be written, like :wqall.

2. :conf qa :confirm qall

   Exit Vim. Bring up a prompt when some buffers have been changed. See :confirm.

3. :qa! :qall!

   Exit Vim. Any changes to buffers are lost. Also see :cquit, it does the same but exits with a non-zero value.

4. :quita :quitall :quita! :quitall!

   Same as :qall.

5. :wqa :wqall :xa :xall

   Write all changed buffers and exit Vim. If there are buffers without a file name, which are readonly or which cannot be written for another reason, Vim will not quit.

6. :conf wqa :confirm wqall :conf xa :confirm xall

   Write all changed buffers and exit Vim. Bring up a prompt when some buffers are readonly or cannot be written for another reason. See :confirm.

7. :wqa! :xa! :wqall! :xall!

   Write all changed buffers, even the ones that are readonly, and exit Vim. If there are buffers without a file name or which cannot be written for another reason, Vim will not quit.

To read about these in Vim, type the following Ex command

:help window-exit

View more solutions

Comments

[Dennis Kioko]

Note, this isn't my answer. I moved this out of the original non-question down to here.

[Bombe]

“close all other tabs” is much faster achieved by “:on” (for “only”, i.e. “the only window to show”). :)

[Boldewyn]

@Bombe: for me it didn't work, too. :on only closes windows, not tabs, at least in my vim 7.3.3.

[MattK]

:wqa can be simplified to just :xa

[Justin Force]

:tabo is exactly what I was looking for. I'd upvote you 30 times if I could. :)

[Aaron McMillin]

Never use :x never never never. You'll screw up some day and do :X encrypt your file, and you won't know the key.

[Singlestone]

@AaronMcMillin I use :x all the time, and have never accidentally encrypted a file.

[Aaron McMillin]

@Singlestone Good for you? I think the upvotes show that you maybe the exception.

[Singlestone]

Good for me indeed! I may be the exception. I am at least a data point. Never say "never never never", that's my motto. :)

[Brandon]

@dhblah :q! is most definitely not the same as :qa! Open two buffers, make unsaved changes in both, then try using :q! You will be sent back and forth between them until you finally use :qa!

[jwd]

@AaronMcMillin: I know this is an old question, but at least on my current Vim, you would have to (1) type uppercase X (2) accidentally enter a password, (3) accidentally enter the same password again, before this would be a problem. I don't see that as very likely...

[Aaron McMillin]

@jwd That's good to know. I've been vim'ing for a long time. and I know I have encrypted files and not been able to open them because of not following was happened after :X

[studgeek]

Maybe remap X away from encrypt so it can never happen again (at least from one character :)?

[Christopher]

I noticed nobody said anything about using ZZ or ZQ which are the same as :x and :q!. If you're afraid of using :x because it's similar to :X then maybe give ZZ a go. That's my goto command for write and quit. Doesn't really answer the original question, but adds to this conversation.

[wisbucky]

This has a side benefit that it still keeps all the tabs in the buffer list. You can see them with :ls. So you can still recover the tabs later if you want. Or convert them to windows, etc.

[bloody]

@Aaron Whereas your advice is of the highest value, if someone blind-types then x is pressed always with a ring finger and natural holding of Shift (for : purpose) involves a pinky finger which is clearly pulled off the Shift while pressing x making it almost impossible to press Shift+x with respectively your pinky finger AND your ring finger unintentionally :) Anyway the advice is still worth obeying.

[ᐅdevrimbaris]

You may close other people's sessions if you accidentally happen to be root. Not very funny :).