Vi is aliased to vim but exit with code 1

问题

This is a weird return code even I have aliased vi by vim.

I really appreciate if anyone could explain me why.

Check my commands and results below.

• which vi returns /usr/bin/vi
• which vim returns /usr/bin/vim

• ls -al /usr/bin/vi /usr/bin/vim returns

  lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel        3 Dec 15 03:34 /usr/bin/vi -> vim
  -rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  1745984 Dec 10 18:03 /usr/bin/vim
  

• cat ~/.vimrc returns

  set nocompatible
  silent! unmap <C-E>
  

• vim then :q to quit immediately. Then echo $? returns 0

• vi then :q to quite immediately. But problem is here, echo $? returns 1
• And if second line in .vimrc, i.e. silent! unmap <C-E>, is removed, vi, :q, echo $? returns 0

• vi then :version prints

  VIM - Vi IMproved 7.4 (2013 Aug 10, compiled Oct  5 2016 16:04:34)
  Included patches: 1-898 Compiled by root@apple.com Normal version
  without GUI.  Features included (+) or not (-):
  +acl             +cindent         -conceal         +digraphs        -farsi           -gettext         +libcall         +mksession       -mouse_netterm   -mzscheme        -profile         +scrollbind      +syntax          +textobjects     +visualextra     -X11
  -arabic          -clientserver    +cryptv          -dnd             +file_in_path    -hangul_input    +linebreak       +modify_fname    -mouse_sgr       +netbeans_intg   +python/dyn      +signs           +tag_binary      +title           +viminfo         -xfontset
  +autocmd         -clipboard       +cscope          -ebcdic          +find_in_path    +iconv           +lispindent      +mouse           -mouse_sysmouse  +path_extra      -python3         +smartindent     +tag_old_static  -toolbar         +vreplace        -xim
  -balloon_eval    +cmdline_compl   +cursorbind      -emacs_tags      +float           +insert_expand   +listcmds        -mouseshape      -mouse_urxvt     -perl            +quickfix        -sniff           -tag_any_white   +user_commands   +wildignore      -xsmp
  -browse          +cmdline_hist    +cursorshape     +eval            +folding         +jumplist        +localmap        -mouse_dec       +mouse_xterm     +persistent_undo +reltime         +startuptime     -tcl             +vertsplit       +wildmenu        -xterm_clipboard
  +builtin_terms   +cmdline_info    +dialog_con      +ex_extra        -footer          -keymap          -lua             -mouse_gpm       +multi_byte      +postscript      -rightleft       +statusline      +terminfo        +virtualedit     +windows         -xterm_save
  +byte_offset     +comments        +diff            +extra_search    +fork()          -langmap         +menu            -mouse_jsbterm   +multi_lang      +printer         +ruby/dyn        -sun_workshop    +termresponse    +visual          +writebackup     -xpm    system vimrc file: "$VIM/vimrc"
       user vimrc file: "$HOME/.vimrc"  2nd user vimrc file: "~/.vim/vimrc"
        user exrc file: "$HOME/.exrc"   fall-back for $VIM: "/usr/share/vim" Compilation: gcc -c -I. -Iproto -DHAVE_CONFIG_H    
  -g -O2 -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1 Linking: gcc   -L/usr/local/lib -o vim        -lm -lncurses  -liconv
  

• I had tried iTerm, Terminal, changed shell to bash, zsh, fish. Remove first line, set nocompatible, in .vimrc. But they all returned this result.

If you need more config in my PC, please give a comment, I will provide it.

Thanks in advance.

---

Update

Because I opened new shell based on the current shell, via command like zsh, bash. It ignored my .zshrc/.bash_profile.

Thus, $PATH does not include /usr/local/bin. Then, instead of using homebrew vim 8.0 version. which vim pointed to default MacOS /usr/bin/vim version.

After trying opening open new shell by command-T and ensure that which vim returns /usr/local/bin/vim, i.e. homebrew's version. vi, :q, echo $? echoed expected result 0.

This solved my problem of exit code 1 after exiting vi, this affected git commit command ..etc. But I still do not understand why default MacOS version of vi makes this unexpected behaviour

回答1:

You don't need to set to 'nocompatible' to Vim because this is the default setting.

I remove this feature in my MacOS and works fine and with exit status 0, writing or not writing files.

Note: is MacOS 'vi' is a link to 'Vim' (and 'awk' is actually 'gawk')

Conclusion: you may use

silent! unmap <C-E>

in your .vimrc file and vim may not exit with error.

来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41719802/vi-is-aliased-to-vim-but-exit-with-code-1