When I'm using Git on Mac and need to do a rebase, the Vim editor kicks in by default. I would prefer Nano – could someone please explain how to reconfigure Git to make it use Nano for rebase?
3 Answers
git config --global core.editor "nano"
More information here:
https://git-scm.com/book/en/Customizing-Git-Git-Configuration
If you want to use nano as your editor for all things command line, add this to your bash_profile:
export EDITOR=/usr/bin/nano
This is assuming you're using the system nano. If not, edit to suit where your nano lives (e.g. /usr/local/bin, /opt/local/bin)
Remember to source your bash_profile after setting this or open a new terminal window for the settings to work...
-
-
4
-
Opening a new terminal window might not be enough to reload
.bash_profile
. Jul 25, 2019 at 4:40
I just learned a moment ago that there (on OSX anyway) is a file at /Users/<USER_NAME>/.gitconfig
$ nano /Users/bob/.gitconfig
Then you should see something like this:
[user]
email = [email protected]
name = Bob Sandwich
[core]
editor = nano
[merge]
tool = vscode
[mergetool "vscode"]
cmd = "code --wait "
[diff]
tool = vscode
[difftool "vscode"]
cmd = "code --wait --diff "
After seeing that structure, you can intuitively understand something like (ie: core.editor
):
git config --global core.editor "nano"
-
-
WTF are you doing there? "sudo nano <file in your $home>"? And only for reading a file? To which you've got access anyway? How about... "cat <file in your $home>"?– alexs77Jun 18, 2021 at 7:33
-
1If you use
sudo nano .gitconfig,
on the chance that the file doesn't exist and is created, it will be owned by root. Since it is unnecessary, drop thesudo
. May 30, 2023 at 16:44 -
@AlexanderSkwar How would
cat .gitconfig
help someone edit the file? May 30, 2023 at 16:44 -
In my experience
cat file
causes an 'undesirable' scroll event when the file is larger than the viewport, but I think you should use your preferred method of inspecting; usingcat
guarantees inability to edit while observing--part of a well balanced immutability diet. (also I removed the sudo; thanks)– agm1984Jun 1, 2023 at 17:15