How to save and exit crontab -e?

Question

How to save and exit crontab -e?

i tried every method listed here and none works, i have a centos 5, vi comes by default with yum and i installed nano

Solved

just changed the default editor

export EDITOR=nano

and now i can do what I do using nano :) thanks everyone and yes i should learn Vi.. someday!!!

@quanta sir didn't work well maybe I'm doing something wrong since I'm used to use nano and not vi ok so I open contab -e, write echo $EDITOR and press enter, it does not exit, it goes down 1 line — user, Sep 04 '11 at 16:38
No, I mean type `echo $EDITOR` from the terminal to determine what default editor you are using. — quanta, Sep 04 '11 at 16:49
@quanta thank you for reminding me that i can change my default editor :D — user, Sep 04 '11 at 17:14
for users coming here; apparently the default editor is decided in /usr/bin/sensible-editor and on my installation it decided on the editor called '[ed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_(text_editor))' as default. Ed can be exited by typing 'q' followed by 'Enter'. — immeëmosol, Oct 27 '16 at 13:43

score 46 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 04 '11 at 16:34

46

As others have pointed out, the first thing is to make sure you're using an editor you like.

We're all admins here, so we all like vi (ducks, runs).

export VISUAL=vi
crontab -e

(do some edits, finishing with ESCAPE)

:wq

And crontab -l should now show you your new crontab. If you prefer some other editor, set that in the VISUAL environment variable, and exit it as appropriate.

answered Sep 04 '11 at 16:34

MadHatter

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sir, I'm not used to vi, i use nano, that's why I'm having difficulties :) – user Sep 04 '11 at 16:40
I'm glad you've found a solution; but may I encourage you to ask the question you want answered in future? Perhaps a better question here would have been "how do I change the editor that's invoked when I type `crontab -e`"? People will be quick enough to offer alternatives if the thing you actually want seems impossible. – MadHatter Sep 04 '11 at 18:15
You can also hit `ESC` then `:x` to save and exit, or hit `ESC` then `ZZ` (that's `shift`+`zz`). – laebshade Sep 04 '11 at 18:36
sorry :D when I asked the question i wanted to figure out how to do it in vi and then quanta asked me to see what is my default editor, then i remembered to change it and do it easily with nano - I did not have that idea when i asked the question :D – user Sep 04 '11 at 19:57

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 25 '14 at 09:42

To exit vi editor:

Usually the new or modified file is saved when you leave vi. However, it is also possible to quit vi without saving the file. The cursor moves to bottom of screen whenever a colon (:) is typed.

:x<Enter>   quit vi, writing out modified file to file named in original invocation
:wq<Enter>  quit vi, writing out modified file to file named in original invocation
:q<Enter>   quit (or exit) vi
:q!<Enter>  quit vi even though latest changes have not been saved for this vi call

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 04 '11 at 16:46

6

Ctrl+x, answer by pressing y to save changes and Enter to confirm.

answered Sep 04 '11 at 16:46

quanta

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 04 '11 at 16:34

2

esc-esc-:wq? Are you saying vi is the default editor, and you want nano instead?

Saving and quitting vi is outlined here: http://www.helpdesk.umd.edu/documents/4/4793/#a13

answered Sep 04 '11 at 16:34

ewwhite

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 31 '20 at 21:51

1

If your crontab -e is runned in the joe-editor, try:

CTRL+c to exit without saving changes

CTRL+k+x to save and exit

answered Dec 31 '20 at 21:51

terano

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How to save and exit crontab -e?

5 Answers5