Setting key problem: save and close just like vim

Question

I'm trying to use global-set-key to bind commands ":x" as save and close, just like the way vim do. Right now I'm doing:

(global-set-key (kbd "S-; x") (lambda() (kbd "C-x C-s") (kill-emacs)))

But when I type Shift+: and then x, it just write :x in the documents instead of really doing save and close. Wondering what should be the right form?

Answer 1

There is a function that does this already:

(save-buffers-kill-emacs &optional ARG)

Offer to save each buffer, then kill this Emacs process. With prefix ARG, silently save all file-visiting buffers without asking.

You can call it interactively with C-u M-x save-buffers-kill-emacs and all files are saved without asking you and emacs quits, problem solved!

Your keybinding didn't work for two reasons:

1. (kbd "S-;") is not shifted ";" (i.e., ":"), it is ";" with the Super bit on. To bind to ":" just use ":" like this - (kbd ":")
2. ":" is not a prefix key, so you can't use it in a chain (kbd ": x") without further changes. Either you need to define a prefix-map and bind it to ":" (see below), or investigate some other approach.

So, to get a save-all-and-quit bound to a key, the easiest solution is probably:

(global-set-key (kbd "C-c x") 
    (lambda () 
        (interactive) 
        (save-buffers-kill-emacs t)))

Here the function is bound to C-c x, but you can change it to anything else.

If you really want to use ":" as a prefix, you'd do something like this:

(define-prefix-command 'my-keymap)
(global-set-key ":" my-keymap)

;; define kill-emacs:
(define-key my-keymap "x" (lambda () 
        (interactive) 
        (save-buffers-kill-emacs t)))

Now, of course, you've lost use of the : key for entering the ":" character. You can get it back by adding it to your keymap:

(define-key my-keymap ":" 'self-insert-command)

Now entering : x will save all buffers and kill emacs, and : : will enter a ":".

Answer 2

This should do the trick. Just add this to your .emacs and bind it to a key and you're done

(defun save-all-and-quit ()
  (interactive)
  (save-some-buffers t)
  (kill-emacs))

This is considering you want to save all buffers without prompting interactively for yes or no for all the unsaved buffers.