How do I use vim as 'git log' editor?

git vim pager git-log
Shengjie picture Shengjie · May 21, 2013 · Viewed 9.6k times · Source

When I run git log, what exactly is the editor git log is using?

Also:

  1. Is there anyway I can use vim as my default editor for git log?
  2. If I want to search against the git log, what's the best way? Now I'm doing something like: git log | grep bla.

Answer

user1019830 picture user1019830 · May 21, 2013

The git log command pipes it's output by default into a pager, not an editor. This pager is usually less or more on most systems. You can change the default pager to vim with the command:

git config --global core.pager 'vim -'

Now you can search using vim functionality with / as usual.

Related questions

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

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.

Read More
How do I exit from the text window in Git?

I am using Windows and before committing, Git wants me to enter a text message and a new text window appears. How can I exit from this? I am trying to learn Git. So, a little help will be highly …

Read More
Git commit in terminal opens VIM, but can't get back to terminal

Trying to learn GitHub at the moment and doing this Git essentials tutorial over at nettuts. I'm on the lesson about making commits. The teacher types git commit and it opens VIM as his editor (I'd also like to know …

Read More