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This is the ultimate, no-nonsense, hardcore exit command for the worst-case scenarios of exiting Vim if you want out, have no idea what you've done and you don't care what will happen to the files you opened.

Ctrl-cEnterCtrl-\Ctrl-nEnter:qa!Enter

This will get you out most of the time. Most.

Some interesting cases where you need something like this:

• iCtrl-ovg (you enter insert mode, then visual mode and then operator pending mode)

• QappendEnter

• iCtrl-ogQCtrl-r=Ctrl-k (thanks to porges for this case)

• iCtrl-ogQCtrl-r=inputdialog('foo','bar')Enter

• :set insertmode (this is a case when Ctrl-\Ctrl-n returns you to normal mode)

This answer was corrected due to cases above. It used to be:

EscEscEsc:qa!Enter

However, that doesn't work if you have entered Ex mode. In that case you would need to do:

viEnter:qa!Enter

So a complete command for "I don't want to know what I've done and I don't want to save anything, I just want out now!" would be

viEnterEscEscEsc:qa!Enter

This is the ultimate, no-nonsense, hardcore exit command for the worst-case scenarios of exiting Vim if you want out, have no idea what you've done and you don't care what will happen to the files you opened.

Ctrl-cEnterCtrl-\Ctrl-nEnter:qa!Enter

This will get you out most of the time. Most.

You might think, naively, that you can just bang Esc a few times and then do :qa!. Oh, how you would be mistaken.

See these interesting cases where hitting Esc is not enough:

• iCtrl-ovg (you enter insert mode, then visual mode and then operator pending mode)

• QappendEnter

• iCtrl-ogQCtrl-r=Ctrl-k (thanks to porges for this case)

• iCtrl-ogQCtrl-r=inputdialog('foo','bar')Enter

• :set insertmode (this is a case when Ctrl-\Ctrl-n returns you to normal mode)

This is for the worst-case scenario of exiting Vim if you just want out, have no idea what you've done and you don't care what will happen to the files you opened.

Ctrl-cEnterEnterviEnterCtrl-\Ctrl-n:qa!Enter

This should get you out most of the time.

Some interesting cases where you need something like this:

• iCtrl-ovg (you enter insert mode, then visual mode and then operator pending mode)

• QappendEnter

• iCtrl-ogQCtrl-r=Ctrl-k (thanks to porges for this case)

• :set insertmode (this is a case when Ctrl-\Ctrl-n returns you to normal mode)

This answer was corrected due to cases above. It used to be:

EscEscEsc:qa!Enter

However, that doesn't work if you have entered Ex mode. In that case you would need to do:

viEnter:qa!Enter

So a complete command for "I don't want to know what I've done and I don't want to save anything, I just want out now!" would be

viEnterEscEscEsc:qa!Enter

This is the ultimate, no-nonsense, hardcore exit command for the worst-case scenarios of exiting Vim if you want out, have no idea what you've done and you don't care what will happen to the files you opened.

Ctrl-cEnterCtrl-\Ctrl-nEnter:qa!Enter

This will get you out most of the time. Most.

Some interesting cases where you need something like this:

• iCtrl-ovg (you enter insert mode, then visual mode and then operator pending mode)

• QappendEnter

• iCtrl-ogQCtrl-r=Ctrl-k (thanks to porges for this case)

• iCtrl-ogQCtrl-r=inputdialog('foo','bar')Enter

• :set insertmode (this is a case when Ctrl-\Ctrl-n returns you to normal mode)

This answer was corrected due to cases above. It used to be:

EscEscEsc:qa!Enter

However, that doesn't work if you have entered Ex mode. In that case you would need to do:

viEnter:qa!Enter

So a complete command for "I don't want to know what I've done and I don't want to save anything, I just want out now!" would be

viEnterEscEscEsc:qa!Enter

This is for the worst-case scenario of exiting Vim if you just want out, have no idea what you've done and you don't care what will happen to the files you opened.

Ctrl-cEnterEnterviEnterCtrl-</kbd>Ctrl-n:qa!Enter

This should get you out most of the time.

Some interesting cases where you need something like this:

• iCtrl-ovg (you enter insert mode, then visual mode and then operator pending mode)

• QappendEnter

• iCtrl-ogQCtrl-r=Ctrl-k (thanks to porges for this case)

• :set insertmode (this is a case when Ctrl-</kbd>Ctrl-n returns you to normal mode)

This answer was corrected due to cases above. It used to be:

EscEscEsc:qa!Enter

However, that doesn't work if you have entered Ex mode. In that case you would need to do:

viEnter:qa!Enter

So a complete command for "I don't want to know what I've done and I don't want to save anything, I just want out now!" would be

viEnterEscEscEsc:qa!Enter

This is for the worst-case scenario of exiting Vim if you just want out, have no idea what you've done and you don't care what will happen to the files you opened.

Ctrl-cEnterEnterviEnterCtrl-\Ctrl-n:qa!Enter

This should get you out most of the time.

Some interesting cases where you need something like this:

• iCtrl-ovg (you enter insert mode, then visual mode and then operator pending mode)

• QappendEnter

• iCtrl-ogQCtrl-r=Ctrl-k (thanks to porges for this case)

• :set insertmode (this is a case when Ctrl-\Ctrl-n returns you to normal mode)

This answer was corrected due to cases above. It used to be:

EscEscEsc:qa!Enter

However, that doesn't work if you have entered Ex mode. In that case you would need to do:

viEnter:qa!Enter

So a complete command for "I don't want to know what I've done and I don't want to save anything, I just want out now!" would be

viEnterEscEscEsc:qa!Enter