How do I make Git use the editor of my choice for commits?

Question

I would prefer to write my commit messages in Vim, but it is opening them in Emacs.

How do I configure Git to always use Vim? Note that I want to do this globally,

Answer 1

For EmEditor users

To set EmEditor as the default text editor for Git, open Git Bash, and type:

git config --global core.editor "emeditor.exe -sp"

EmEditor v19.9.2 or later required.

Answer 2

In Windows 7, setting editor to Notepad++

• Open any text editor.
• Open this file: C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\.gitconfig
• Add this section to the bottom:

---

[core]
    editor = 'C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe' 

• Save and close the file.
• When you're committing with git, just write git commit and press Enter. It will pop open Notepad++.
• Write your commit message at the top of the file, and save and close the file. Done!

Answer 3

Atom as your git editor

git config --global core.editor "atom --wait"

Atom needs to be configured to run from the command line for the above to work:

OS X: install shell commands from Atom: menu bar > Atom > Install Shell Commands

Windows: no action required - atom is configured to run from the command line by default

Answer 4

Setting Sublime Text 2 as Git commit editor in Mac OSX 10

Run this command:

$ git config --global core.editor "/Applications/Sublime\ Text\ 2.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl"

Or just:

$ git config --global core.editor "subl -w"

Answer 5

For IntelliJ users

When i was trying to git rebase i was getting the following error: 'hint: Waiting for your editor to close the file... code -n -w: code: command not found error: There was a problem with the editor 'code -n -w'.'

The same error showed up when i was trying to associate IntelliJ with Git:

The problem was that I did not have the command code added in my environment PATH variable. And i didn't want to use Visual Studio Code from my terminal. So that is why it prompted "command not found". I solved this by deleting

editor = code -n -w

from the core section in my .gitconfig file. Git worked properly again.

Answer 6

To make vim the default editor for git on ubuntu 20:04 run the following command:

git config --global core.editor vim