How can I make Sublime Text the default editor for Git?

Question

I have a problem setting Sublime Text 2 as the core.editor with git.

I've read through every post I could find addressing the problem, but still nothing is working for me. I am running Windows.

I have done:

git config --global core.editor "'C:/Program Files/Sublime Text 2/sublime_text.exe'"

and tried that with various arguments like -m. When I open my .gitconfig, this is what is in there:

[user]
    name = Spencer Moran
    email = [email protected]
[core]
    editor = 'C:/Program Files/Sublime Text 2/sublime_text.exe'

If I go to Git and type:

README.markdown --edit

the README file opens in Notepad, not Sublime Text.

Does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong or how I could fix this?

Boride

If you're typing only README.markdown --edit in cmd.exe, git isn't involved at all. Change your file associations in windows if you want that to work. – Edda

A general FYI for most of the answers below: -w means "Wait for the file to be closed before returning," and -n means "Open a new window." Source: docs.sublimetext.info/en/latest/command_line/command_line.html – Dovelike

My favorite settings for using Sublime Text 3 as my git editor: stackoverflow.com/questions/2596805/… – Hajji

Answer 1

Windows

Sublime Text 2 (Build 2181)

The latest Build 2181 just added support for the -w (wait) command line argument. The following configuration will allow ST2 to work as your default git editor on Windows. This will allow git to open ST2 for commit messages and such.

git config --global core.editor "'c:/program files/sublime text 2/sublime_text.exe' -w"

Sublime Text 3 (Build 3065)

Sublime Text 3 (Build 3065) added the subl.exe command line helper. Use subl.exe -h for the options available to you. I have hot_exit: true and remember_open_files: true set in my Sublime Text user settings. I have found the following to git config to work well for me.

git config --global core.editor "'c:/program files/sublime text 3/subl.exe' -w"

---

Mac and Linux

Set Sublime as your editor for Git by typing the following command in the terminal:

git config --global core.editor "subl -n -w"

---

With this Git config, the new tab is opened in my editor. I edit my commit message, save the tab (Ctrl+S) and close it (Ctrl+W).

Git will wait until the tab is closed to continue its work.

Mccaffrey

Personally, in addition to setting my editor as @Mccaffrey suggests, my ST2/git experience improved a lot when I add the following options to my ST2 settings: { "hot_exit": false, "remember_open_files": false, "close_windows_when_empty": true } – Diligence

@Diligence Can you explain? I'm kind of fond of these settings and I'd like to know the flip side – Holierthanthou

Note that the above path uses forward slashes instead of backslashes. Using backslashes causes it to fail (even when stored with c:\\program... in the .gitconfig). – Oxymoron

@Phrogz: I was able to get it working in my .gitconfig with the following syntax: editor = 'C:\\Program Files\\Sublime Text 2\\sublime_text.exe' -w – Fortalice

For me, this will open a new tab if sublime text is already open. Closing the tab, doesn't let git know its done. I've tried --multiinstance, but it doesn't seem to do anything. – Feedback

note that when hot_exit is false and the lights went out all unsaved work will begone!!!!!!!!!! – Sudiesudnor

@David: On Sublime Text 3 (3059) at least, adding -n works for opening a new window - found at sublimetext.com/docs/3/osx_command_line.html – Suffragette

Actually, using "-n -w", git doesn't seem to be able to tell that the sublime text window closed (if I have an existing sublime window open at least). "-w --multiinstance" still seems to work the best, though in the new sublime window any existing tabs are re-opened. It seems they can safely be ignored. – Feedback

@David: I'm using the same settings as up in the first comment from Sandy and it seems like your scenario is working for me. I get a nice fresh window and closing the tab or window works. (For me, I'm OK with those settings in general use.) – Suffragette

On Win8.1, using ST3 + Git version 1.9.4-preview20140611, after adding the program to my path and restarting I can launch ST3 via "git commit" successfully with commit info in a file named "COMMIT_EDITMSG". However, Git, immediately on file launch, says "Aborting commit due to empty commit message." - saving and closing ST3 after entering a commit message does nothing in Git. – Mcglynn

I got it to work under Windows by using only editor = subl.exe -w and adding the Sublime Text directory to the path environment variable. – Crosscountry

@Crosscountry when you say that you used editor = subl.exe -w do you mean Powershell or Git Bash? I ran this in both but it's resulting in a sytax error- is there anything that I need to add before or after the command? Also- can you explain what I should do to add the Sublime Text directory to the path environment variable? – Victim

All, I am using Git Bash on a Windows machine I'm running git config --global code.editor "'C:\\Program Files\\Sublime Text 3\\sublime_text.exe' -n -w -m" but when I run git commit it's opening in the Notepad. Before adding the -m flag it was opening in the Git Bash editor. I have downloaded Sublime 3 and the exe file is called "sublime_text.exe". I have not done anything else (for example, I have not changed the environment variables). Any thoughts? – Victim

I had trouble with subl.exe never exiting (windows 10 RS4/sublime 3126) no matter the flags. Oddly enough using the regular sublime_text.exe with -w -n worked. – Correspondence

Answer 2

You can use this command on Mac and Linux:

git config --global core.editor "subl -n -w"

Paracasein

Actually, the recommendation on Mac these days is to symlink subl to somewhere in your $PATH and set your editor to 'subl -w'. It's in the official docs. – Diligence

The docs I referred to are: sublimetext.com/docs/2/osx_command_line.html – Diligence

The docs say to use subl -w, but if you have other tabs open this won't work correctly. I've found subl -n -w works better since it opens a new window. – Determinable

@Determinable if i do that should i close tab or close window to commit? close window didnt work – Switcheroo

This opens an empty document in sublime for me until I followed these instructions: sublimetext.com/docs/3/osx_command_line.html but changed the path from Sublime Text.app to Sublime Text 2.app – Listed

I had to use ln -s /Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl /usr/local/bin/ to create the symlink for sublfirst. See here. – Motorman

Answer 3

For Mac & Sublime Text 3:

If git config --global core.editor "subl -n -w" doesn't work, use this git config command:

$ git config --global core.editor "'/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl' -n -w"

Note: it does not contain escaping backslashes.

Autecology

This is the right way to set it. Thanks for that. – Brookins

You my friend saved me big time, vim gives me the creeps. – Aldarcie

Or you could just follow the instructions on how to add subl to your command line > Docs – Hemorrhoid

Answer 4

For Mac OS X in the file ~/.gitconfig under [core] I had to put this code to solve the issue on my end.

editor = /Applications/Sublime\\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl  -n -w

This was when subl was working fine but git was unable to access it. And was displaying these errors

subl -n -w: subl: command not found
error: There was a problem with the editor 'subl -n -w'.

Silvan

This is what did the trick for me after having tried others solutions, thanks – Gardy

Answer 5

what worked for me in cygwin/zsh:

in /usr/local/bin create subl_git file

#!/bin/bash
/cygdrive/c/Program\ Files/Sublime\ Text\ 2/sublime_text.exe -w -n `cygpath -w $@`

in gitconfig:

editor = /usr/local/bin/subl_git

Lyonnais

excuse my newbie question but how do I access the gitconfig? Is this different than running git config --list? Thanks in advance. – Victim

that just lists them out. you ned to edit your gitconfig – Lyonnais

I had a space in my user folder so I used a modified -"/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Sublime Text 3/subl.exe" -w -n "`cygpath -d -w "$@"` – Grapery

Answer 6

With Sublime Text 2 and the following configuration, if nothing happens when you close the git commit's comment file :

git config --global core.editor "'c:/program files/sublime text 2/sublime_text.exe' -w"

If the git commit doesn't finish when you close the COMMIT_EDITMSG comment file in Sublime, I've found this is probably because you are running CMD in administrator mode (and have a Sublime Text already opened in non admin mode). I had the same problem and it worked for me when I started my CMD in normal mode.

Ps : just wanted to answer to the problem @david pointed out in the accepted answer's comments, but I couldn't post comment since I'm new here... so I've made a new answer, because I think this can be useful to some people encountering the problem.

Vassell

Thanks for the tip. Do you know of a solution? – Greatest

@ScottWegner Just launch your CMD in non-admin mode, as a workaround. You don't need to be in admin mode to run git commands. However, If you really need to be in admin mode, then I didn't find solution for this, except open another CMD instance. – Vassell

thanks for the follow-up. I end up with elevated shells because my development environment requires admin-mode for other tools (Visual Studio), thus I run my entire shell elevated. I think I'll explore only elevating the tools that need it. – Greatest

@ScottWegner I personally use Cmder (the full version even includes msysgit). It allows mulitple instances of CMD, bash or other Shells, in a unique window with tabs. You can launch some tabs in admin mode and others in normal mode. I usually have one tab dedicated to git and other tabs for my other tools. Maybe you would be interested in giving it a try. It's a great tool! – Vassell

re: admin mode - i think the trick is that your shell and sublime have to be using the same privileges. i.e. if you're running your terminal elevated and sublime is also elevated it works smoothly. – Stomatic

Answer 7

I just successfully made it with the help of PowerShell (command line tools for windows, which is also be use as the default command line on GithubforWindows)

Just make a folder "WindowsPowerShell" on "C:\Users\%username%\My Documents". Then, create a file called "profile.ps1". Make sure that you have the correct file extension, .ps1 and not .txt. inside the profile.ps1, put this line to set an alias command:

Set-Alias subl 'c:\program files\sublime text 2\sublime_text.exe'

Make sure the sublime directory on your machine is correct. You can also see the configuration details in here.

Now, I can edit files with Sublime Text 2 via PowerShell command just by typing:

subl filename

Hopefully this is usefull...

Priming

To open the current folder in Sublime Text 2, you can use: subl . – Fortalice

For Sublime Text 3, use the new subl.exe: Set-Alias subl 'c:\program files\sublime text 3\subl.exe' – Adulterer

Answer 8

I've faced the same problem with git editor in Windows this evening, and finally I've got it.

You'll need to set your editor path with the bash syntax and using the DOS 8.3 format to avoid spaces:

This doesn't work (for me):

git config --global core.editor "C://Program files/Sublime Text/sublime_text.exe"

This do:

git config --global core.editor /C/PROGRA~1/SUBLIME~1/sublime_text.exe

You can get the DOS 8.3 name for a directory with dir /x

Erased

Answer 9

On MacOS(Mojave) below is working for me for Sublime 3:

git config --global core.editor "/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl -n -w"

Watertight

Answer 10

For Windows, try this

git config --global core.editor "'C:\Program Files\Sublime Text 3\sublime_text.exe' -w"

Basidiospore

Answer 11

I was just struggling with this for some reason, none of the examples above quite worked for me. This was my solution however:

 git config --global core.editor "'c:/<path to sublime>/sublime_text.exe' -w $*"

You specifically need the ' ' around the path and the $* at the end of the args, all in " ".

Sudorific

Answer 12

For MAC Users I can say for Sublime use the following:

First Check the .gitconfig file using command:

1. cd ~
2. ls -la
3. cat .gitconfig

Now one can add this configuration:

git config --global core.editor "subl -n -wl1"

Where l1 will tell to start at line 1.

Albert

Answer 13

If you are Mac User, then here is how:

git config --global core.editor '/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl'

Daunt

Answer 14

well, i had some trouble invoking notepad++ from gitbash even after setting it as my core.editor.

i got it all solved by appending the below line to my .bashrc file in my gitbash installation directory.

alias npp='winpty "C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe"'

so, i can invoke notepad++ with the alias "npp". i feel this can help you if you change the directory to the respective editor you want to use.

Sorcery

Answer 15

On Windows, if you are installing git, you can select other editor and give the following command line. C:\Program Files\Sublime Text 3\sublime_text.exe -w

Groves

Answer 16

For Windows 7 I have found the following solution works:

git config --global core.editor "C:/Program\ Files/Sublime\ Text\ 2/sublime_text.exe -n -w"

Extrusive

Answer 17

I haven't seen any instances of updates regarding Windows allowing Git installation to actively pick Sublime Text as your default text editor without all the sturm und drang of the original override codes...

Castrato

Answer 18

For Windows 10 with sublime text 4 You can carefully edit your .gitconfig to this:

[core]
    editor = \"C:\\Program Files\\Sublime Text\\subl.exe\" -w
[user]
    email = [email protected]
    name = Your Name

Edit the line editor line to this path so git can find subl 4.

The doble \\ Are needed for escape the backslash character.

The .gitconfig file is found on your Root profile directory eg: C:\Users\YourUsername\.gitconfig

Valenta