The editor will terminate any operation gracefully at the earliest possible moment after the Break key is typed. As a result of the break, any operation may be incomplete on the range of lines specified for a command, however, no line will be left in a partially modified state. Should you break out of an Edit (e), Read (r), or Write (w) command you may only move a subset of the lines into or out of your buffer to the specified file.
After servicing the Break the editor will leave you in command state.