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,

Answer 1

This provides an answer for people who arrive at this Question that may want to link an editor other than vim.

The linked resource, by Github,is likely to be kept up to date, when editors are updated, even if answers on SO (including this one) are not.

Associating Text Editors with git

Github's post shows exactly what to type in to your command line for various editors, including the options/flags specific to each editor for it to work best with git.

Notepad++:
git config --global core.editor "'C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe' -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin"

Sublime Text:
git config --global core.editor "'c:/Program Files/sublime text 3/subl.exe' -w"

Atom:
git config --global core.editor "atom --wait"

The commands above assume your editor has been installed in the default directory for a windows machine.

The commands basically add the text between double-quotes to .gitconfig in your home directory.
On a windows machine home is likely to be C:\Users\your-user-name, where your-user-name is your login name.
From the command line, you can reach this directory by typing in cd ~.

for example, a command above would be add the following line under the [core] section like so:
[core] editor = 'C:/Program Files/sublime text 3/subl.exe' -w

If you have a different editor, just replace with the path to your editor, using either method above. (and hope no flags are needed for optimal usage.)