Git commit messages lost by vi

Question

I\'m a clumsy typist, and I don\'t use vi/vim very often, but I do use it for commit messages. However, if you type a wrong command while editing a commit message (:Wq

Answer 1

You should set vim to not detach from the shell and be in the foreground. You can do this with the following command:

git config --global core.editor vim -f

From the man:

   -f          Foreground.  For the GUI version, Vim will not fork and detach from the shell it
               was  started in.  On the Amiga, Vim is not restarted to open a new window.  This
               option should be used when Vim is executed by a program that will wait  for  the
               edit  session  to  finish (e.g. mail).  On the Amiga the ":sh" and ":!" commands
               will not work.

Answer 2

As mentioned in several posts vim is exiting with a exit code other than zero. You can fix it by explicitely setting the git editor to the full vim path:

git config --global core.editor /usr/bin/vim

If I remember correctly I fixed the issue by installing a homebrewed vim. Make sure your path is set correctly then.