Entering insert mode automatically when editing git commit messages

Question

If I do a git commit, when Vim opens, I want to be in insert mode straight away.

I noticed that the filetype is set to gitcommit w

Answer 1

An alternate approach:

export GIT_EDITOR='vim +startinsert'

or add ! in the end to start from the end of message (useful, when using git hooks for message completion)

export GIT_EDITOR='vim +startinsert!'

Answer 2

This is probably a bit more complex than it needs to be, but you can do this with an individual filetype plugin:

$ mkdir -p ~/.vim/ftplugin/gitcommit
$ echo 'startinsert!' > !$/git-commit-insert.vim

Answer 3

In :au Event pattern command, the pattern is usually matched against the buffer name. Instead of BufRead gitcommit, you could use BufRead COMMIT_EDITMSG. If you want to match against the filetype option, then use the FileType event.

I tend to write multi-line commit messages, and I have an autocommand (from vimrc_example.vim) that does

exe "normal! g`\""

whenever I enter a new buffer, so how about

au FileType gitcommit 1 | startinsert

to go to the first line before entering Insert mode? Now that I have tested it, I think I will keep it. :)