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

Posted By: Anonymous

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, not just for a single project.

Solution

If you want to set the editor only for Git, do either (you don’t need both):

• Set core.editor in your Git config: git config --global core.editor "vim"
• Set the GIT_EDITOR environment variable: export GIT_EDITOR=vim

---

If you want to set the editor for Git and also other programs, set the standardized VISUAL and EDITOR environment variables*:

export VISUAL=vim
export EDITOR="$VISUAL"

_{* Setting both is not necessarily needed, but some programs may not use the more-correct VISUAL. See VISUAL vs. EDITOR.}

---

Some editors require a --wait flag, or they will open a blank page. For example:

• Sublime Text (if correctly set up; or use the full path to the executable in place of subl):

  export VISUAL="subl --wait"

• VS Code (after adding the shell command):

  export VISUAL="code --wait"

Answered By: Anonymous

Disclaimer: This content is shared under creative common license cc-by-sa 3.0. It is generated from StackExchange Website Network.