Disable Command-W in the terminal

Is there any way to disable Command+W in the terminal?

On several occasions I have accidentally closed a terminal window containing important information when I meant to close a Safari tab and did not realize that the terminal was the active window.


To disable W in Terminal, do the following:

  • From the  menu in the top left corner of the screen, select System Preferences. Click on Keyboard then Keyboard Shortcuts then Application Shortcuts. enter image description here

  • Click the + button to add a new shortcut

  • Select "Terminal.app" for the application, and for the command, type Close Window (this is case sensitive). In the shortcut box, give it a different shortcut, like ControlW enter image description here

  • Now W will not close your terminal windows.


You can set a prompt before closing in the preferences:

Terminal Preferences → Settings → Shell

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