After launching vi, writing some text and attempting to save it I get the error message "Can't open file for writing." Since I did not open a file to begin with don't know what this is in reference to. Does one have to specify the filename before trying to save it? That is issue the command vi <filename> first? The method that I tried to save the file is as follows:
1:Go into command mode using the Esc key
2:Then issue the :w command followed by the filename and pressing the Enter key.
3: What follows is the noted error message or the option of continuing with the command. This implies that the command is incomplete. Pressing the Tab/Ctrl keys for some hints does not help and I could not see any infomation in the Man pages on this. TIA for suggestions on resolving this issue.

Make sure the directory you are in is writable by you.

you can also name the file wherever after your :wq! command.. ex:

:wq! /etc/somefile.txt etc etc...

-trickykid

After I issue the :w command do I have to specify the absolute path to where the file should be saved also?Or, if I am in my Home directory will not vi save it to there by default?

if your in your home directory, it will save there by default.. but be sure not to just issue :w , you need to add the q! also so it quits as well.. well if your done with the file.

-trickykid

If you do a ":wq" you don't really need a "!" on the end. ":q!" just forces a quit even if you haven't saved, which you just did.

true.. personal habit of mine i guess..

yea it has become a habit just to do a :wq!

I tried the :wq command followed by the filename and still get the same error message. When I try to specify a path after the filename I get the message that only one name is allowed per file. Don't know what, if anything, I may be doing wrong unless someone has overlooked something. I wonder whether or not the filename should precede the :wq command?

When you first open vi you should state the name of the file you would like to save it as. For example: #vi howtousevi# would be opening a new file and naming it "howtousevi". Then at the end when you try to save with :wq it will simply right over the empty file named "howtousevi". I don't know if this will help or not, but good luck.

I found this information at: Linux.org

well... personal preference here. if i use vi, i usually decide the filename i want first. saves a lot of trouble.



the other solution is: use nano

It seems that it says "can't open file for writing" when you don't have write access to the place it's trying to write it to.
However, if you simply type
:w /home/username/filename" it should work.
What version of VI are you using?

Hey Passive your suggestion worked! Thanks for the help. By the way the version of vi that I am using is whatever came with RedHat's 7.2 distribution.

at the command line:
vi --version