How can I set up an editor to work with Git on Windows?

Question

I\'m trying out Git on Windows. I got to the point of trying \"git commit\" and I got this error:

Terminal is dumb but no VISUAL nor

Answer 1

I use Git on multiple platforms, and I like to use the same Git settings on all of them. (In fact, I have all my configuration files under release control with Git, and put a Git repository clone on each machine.) The solution I came up with is this:

I set my editor to giteditor

git config --global core.editor giteditor

Then I create a symbolic link called giteditor which is in my PATH. (I have a personal bin directory, but anywhere in the PATH works.) That link points to my current editor of choice. On different machines and different platforms, I use different editors, so this means that I don't have to change my universal Git configuration (.gitconfig), just the link that giteditor points to.

Symbolic links are handled by every operating system I know of, though they may use different commands. For Linux, you use ln -s. For Windows, you use the cmd built-in mklink. They have different syntaxes (which you should look up), but it all works the same way, really.