How to return from tab page mode to the normal one?

Question

Is it possible to close all tab pages and to stay back in "no tab page mode", without exiting?

Answer 1

As romainl points out in the comments, there is no such thing as "no tab page mode": if Vim is running you always have at least one tab.

If your tab line is displaying when you only have one tab, you need to change your 'showtabline' option (to its default value):

" Only display tab line when there are at least two tab pages:
:set showtabline = 1

Answer 2

You can use the :tabonly command, to close all other tabpages at once.

Note: technically you will still have a single tabpage open, even if the tablabel does not show up.

Answer 3

I would close all the tab pages (:tabclose) but the last one.