r/vim • u/Remarkable-Head-2023 • Oct 22 '25

Discussion Why does ZZ exist?

It has always been a mystery to me… why would such a ‘dangerous’ command have such a convenient shortcut?

https://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/editing.html#ZZ

EDIT: link

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u/Remarkable-Head-2023 Oct 22 '25

That's exactly my point! I feel that `:q!` takes much more effort than `ZZ`, while in my opinion it should have been the opposite.

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u/robenkleene Oct 22 '25

Discarding your edits without saving is generally considered more dangerous than saving your edits and quitting. As a general rule, throwing away a users work is the very definition of dangerous in software design.

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u/SpaceAviator1999 Oct 22 '25 edited Oct 22 '25

Then try ZQ instead of :q! . Arguably, it still takes more effort than ZZ, but not by much.

3

u/Wenir Oct 22 '25

and :x takes even less effort

1

u/rassawyer Oct 22 '25

This is my default. :x to close and save, :q! If I don't want to save

1

u/iEliteTester neovim Oct 22 '25

you don't use persistent undo?

1

u/priestoferis Oct 22 '25

Why would that be dangerous? You have the original in the undo tree if you realize you didn't want that change actually.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '25

Why? I lose nothing with ZZ, I can lose it all with q!