It might take a while until you see it used but there are two editors popular on Linux on the terminal. These editors are also part of the Git Bash environment on Windows so you might see them if you start using the command line.

There are more choices available for the standard editor git calls if needed. But the two choices that don’t need additional software are Vim (default) and nano.

  • The most important commands start with :
  • On startup you are in command mode and need to enter i to switch to edit mode
  • To get back to command mode hit the Esc key
  • To quit without saving use :q, to save and quit use :x
  • They are displayed at the bottom and ^ stands for Ctrl
  • To quit use ^x (so Ctrl+x). It will ask you whether you want to save or not.