Changing My Git Editor On The Fly

I love using Sublime Text as do many developers these days, but I just can’t use it regularly for git commit messages.

When I learned git 4 years ago I always used the default editor - vim. I don’t particularly enjoy using vim, but it’s the command-line editor I know best. For the longest time I would write inline commit messages, ie: git commit -m "hello world".

Then one day something crazy happened…

Since then, about 1 year ago, my default commit workflow has become the following

• git commit
• (vim launches)
• type i
• write awesome commit message
• type esc + :wq

Nothing special about it, but this workflow is so engrained in my muscle memory I can’t seem to turn it off. So… what’s the problem? Rebasing commits. Let’s say my goal is to squash 10 commits - including merges, this involves editing several lines at once in the same way.

In the main Zen Audio Player repo, I ran git rebase -i HEAD~10. Here’s the workflow I’d need for either editor.

In vim

• j to go down a line, skip the first commit
• xxxx to delete the 4 characters in pick
• i to start inserting text
• s (squash) or f (fixup)
• esc
• Repeat the previous 4 steps many times. Actually 48 more times since 50 commits are involved in this rebase!

Estimated completion time: 5 minutes

Probability of making a mistake: 50%

So, what’s the solution?

When in doubt, create a bash alias or function!
Since these are the only 2 editors, I’ve hardcoded 2 bash functions that will instantly change my git editor.

Switch to sublime

gitsubl() {
    git config --global core.editor "subl -n -w"
}

Switch to vim

gitvim() {
    git config --global core.editor "vim"
}

Now, whenever I need to do some rebasing:

• run gitsubl
• rebase away…
• run gitvim to go back to normal