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, not just for a single project.

Answer 1

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.}

---

For Sublime Text: Add this to the .gitconfig. The --wait is important (it allows to type text in sublime and will wait for save/close event.)

[core]
    editor = 'subl' --wait

'subl' can be replaced by the full path of the executable but is usually available when correctly installed.