Write Git commit message in different editor than default

Question

I'd like to be able to occasionally use a different editor when writing commit messages. I've found plenty of answers on how to change the default editor, but I don't want to change that - VIM is normally fine. What I'd like is some option like git commit --editor=<editor_name> where <editor_name> is the editor I want to use when writing the commit message for that commit only.

The only thing I've found that is similar to what I'd like is opening a new file with <editor_name> <newcommitfilename>, write message, save and close file, then use git commit -F <newcommitfilename>.
Is there an easier way to achieve this?

Thanks!

What about 2 bash aliases? One to change your editor to X, and one to change it to nano? Then you can quickly change whenever you'd like with one command before you commit. — TTT
– TTT, Commented Jul 28, 2022 at 4:10
How about this? export GIT_EDITOR='nano' && git commit && unset GIT_EDITOR. — qrsngky
– qrsngky, Commented Jul 28, 2022 at 4:19
Simpler than the suggestion by qrsngky, but similar in spirit: Just do a GIT_EDITOR=nano git commit, and you then don't need to unset afterwards. — user1934428
– user1934428, Commented Jul 28, 2022 at 6:45

torek · Accepted Answer · 2022-07-28 04:37:48Z

3

All Git commands use the form:

git <verb>

You may insert options before the verb, e.g.,

git -c core.pager=cat show

The -c option in particular takes a configuration item name, such as core.pager, core.editor, user.name, and so on, and a value, joined with an equals sign = like this.

Since your goal is to use a particular editor, git -c core.editor=whatever commit does the trick.

As several commenters noted, there are other ways to do this. For the editor in particular, the environment variable $GIT_EDITOR overrides core.editor, so:

GIT_EDITOR=nano git commit

runs git commit with GIT_EDTIOR set to nano for the duration of the one command (assuming POSIX-style shell).

answered Jul 28, 2022 at 4:37

torek

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