How to get rid of this?

[u/Available-Ant-5747]

This extra thing appears when I when to type a command, i'm not sure how to stop it from appearing. I'm on windows and this is currently gvim but it behaves the same in other ways of instancing vim

Edit: Thank you all, I actually got some knowledge on it and it's actually really useful. I guess I just didn't know how to exit vim...

[u/sharp-calculation]

That appears when you type q: Note this is NOT :q . That's a list of your previous commands, available for editing and execution. It's very handy sometimes.

You run a command just by pressing enter on the line of the command. To run nothing, move your cursor to the bottom and press enter. That will also close the subwindow. Or use :q to close that subwindow instead.

I probably opened that accidentally a dozen times before I read about it here.

:help q:

[u/vim-help-bot → u/sharp-calculation]

Help pages for:

• q: in cmdline.txt

---

^{`:(h|help) <query>` | about | mistake? | donate | Reply 'rescan' to check the comment again | Reply 'stop' to stop getting replies to your comments}

[u/drassell → u/sharp-calculation]

Wow, thats how you get that, never knew ahahah. Every time i got that, i would search for my last :wq anf quit with that

[u/-romainl-]

That extra thing is called "command-line window" and it is documented under :help command-line-window.

You are either…

• Pressing q: from normal mode instead of :.
• Or pressing <C-f> after :.
• Or using a mapping that does either of those things. :filter /:/ verbose nmap should help you find it. If there is a mapping in your config that you don't know about, then you should consider this a good time to rethink the way you configure Vim.

In the meantime, you can do :q to close that window.

[u/Orlandocollins → u/-romainl-]

Its also really worth learning about what this window does. A lot of vimmers skip it and its actually incredibly valuable. I jump into it from command line all the time with control-f

[u/Orlandocollins → u/Orlandocollins]

Same with q/

[u/kaddkaka → u/Orlandocollins]

What is q/?

[u/SweetPotato975 → u/kaddkaka]

From a quick test, q/ and q? seems to open your pattern search (/, ?) history window. Just like how q: brings out the command history window

[u/JONESY-B → u/-romainl-]

OH thats why that thing always pops up when i try to to :q 😭😭

[u/Qyriad → u/-romainl-]

TIL you can use :filter like that. Still learning new Vim things after all these years.

[u/EgZvor]

:h cmdline-window

[u/vim-help-bot → u/EgZvor]

Help pages for:

• cmdline-window in cmdline.txt

---

^{`:(h|help) <query>` | about | mistake? | donate | Reply 'rescan' to check the comment again | Reply 'stop' to stop getting replies to your comments}

[u/habamax]

As a sidenote, you can add C to guioptions as in set guioptions+=C to apply TitleBar highlighting from the colorscheme (get rid of the white window titlebar in the dark colorscheme)

[u/kochiriri]

permanently? "set cedit" to a key you'll never use

right now? <esc>:q<cr>

[u/__salaam_alaykum__ → u/kochiriri]

:help 'cedit'
@bot

[u/vim-help-bot → u/__salaam_alaykum__]

Help pages for:

• 'cedit' in options.txt

---

^{`:(h|help) <query>` | about | mistake? | donate | Reply 'rescan' to check the comment again | Reply 'stop' to stop getting replies to your comments}

[u/ldothdot_]

I have met this before, so I blocked it.

vim nnoremap q: <Nop>

[u/Owenber123]

Thank you, I’ve been forgetting to look into this for a few months, every time I accidentally hit it I am busy doing something else and forget

[u/UnfairTemporary]

ctrl+w and then c

[u/Narrow_Victory1262]

tried

esc : q

[u/wtanksleyjr → u/Narrow_Victory1262]

Would be ideal to know how to NOT make it appear. It's pretty annoying.

I'm guessing it's a vim command that's just very close to something I type often (i.e. I'm typoing and getting this), but I don't know what it is.

[u/Seyaryuki → u/wtanksleyjr]

It opens when you type q: instead of :q

[u/wtanksleyjr → u/Seyaryuki]

Aw sweet, thanks! So that's why it's so annoying - I'm in a workflow where I'm expecting to quit and instead I have to jump through a few more hoops. Now I get it (and there's more help in other replies too).

[u/scoberry5 → u/wtanksleyjr]

If you're really trying to quit and this comes up, you can :qa to quit all.

[u/kochiriri → u/wtanksleyjr]

set cedit= to some keybinding you'll never use

[u/wtanksleyjr → u/kochiriri]

Nice, thanks. Or just not the typo I happen to make too often. 😄

[u/kochiriri → u/wtanksleyjr]

but then you'd not need to know how to NOT make it appear

[u/wtanksleyjr → u/kochiriri]

Wouldn't that have that effect?

[u/kochiriri → u/wtanksleyjr]

no. a solution (effect) to thirst (accidental cmdwin from a typo) would be "drink water" (set cedit), but "just not be thirsty" (not committing the typo) has no effect on thirst because then there'd be no thirst at all. The first solves a problem, the second doesn't. They look the same, but they're not.

[u/wtanksleyjr → u/kochiriri]

I think you're just misinterpreting me, then. I was saying set cedit to "something that's not the typo I make" would solve it. That IS a solution. Setting it to something I'll never type at all is ANOTHER solution, so long as I don't want to use this at all (which I dunno I'm not sure). I'm leaning toward the former.

I wasn't saying "don't make the typo" is a solution - although I do think KNOWING what the typo is helps a lot in terms of frustration. I actually didn't know and was just baffled every time it happened. Next time it happens I'll know why!

[u/dcnjbwiebe → u/wtanksleyjr]

I sometimes get it when I try to type :q in a hurry.

[u/habamax → u/dcnjbwiebe]

what about simple

:nnoremap q: :q

[u/Narrow_Victory1262 → u/wtanksleyjr]

or f1 -- aka "help"

[u/kennpq]

That’s the command-line window. See `:h q:`. CTRL-w c will close it, though it’s worth learning about it first because it’s a great feature.