Change the default editor for files opened in the terminal? (e.g. set it to TextEdit/Coda/Textmate)

Question

Is there a way to make files opened for editing in the terminal open in Textedit instead?

For example, where a command might open a file for editing (like git commit), instead of opening that file in vim or emacs, it would open in Textedit (or perhaps another text editing application of your choosing, such as Coda or Sublime).

And as a bonus question, is there any way to specifically configure git to automatically open the file created after running git commit in an editor from the applications directory?

Pankhurst

Yes, I am using OSX (10.6.4). – Pankhurst

Best solution I found is using duti -> apple.stackexchange.com/a/123954/58507 – Evilminded

for mac os 10.10+ above solutions won't work. Try this apple.stackexchange.com/questions/123833/… – Rampage

Answer 1

Most programs will check the $EDITOR environment variable, so you can set that to the path of TextEdit in your bashrc. Git will use this as well.

How to do this:

• Add the following to your ~/.bashrc file:
  export EDITOR="/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit"
• or just type the following command into your Terminal:
  echo "export EDITOR=\"/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit\"" >> ~/.bashrc

If you are using zsh, use ~/.zshrc instead of ~/.bashrc.

Intend

Perfect, this does it. I also ran this command to make sure git works the way I would expect it to. This git config --global --unset-all core.editor then git config --global --add core.editor "open -W -n". – Pankhurst

Are you using a different shell? – Intend

in my case, I am using zsh so obviously I need to update the .zshrc config file. – Tenpin

use quotes if the path to your editor has spaces, e.g. "echo "export EDITOR=\"/Applications/Sublime Text 2.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl\"" >> ~/.bashrc" And you may have to reload your .bashrc with: source ~/.bashrc – Crotchety

Thanks, I've set nano editor as default by this. Here's how to add it to OSX: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20021017065800302 – Powered

Mars Redwyne, I tried the quotation marks for spaces (export EDITOR=/Applications/Sublime\"Text.app/Contents/MacOS/Sublime\"Text), as well as just a slash with the space (export EDITOR=/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/MacOS/Sublime\ Text), but neither worked, even after running the source command. Am I doing something wrong? – Wizardly

@Michelle Glauser your quotes should go like EDITOR="/Applications/.../Sublime Text" or whatever. Across the entire EDITOR export, not just something inside it. (A whole month late on this response... oops) – Intend

Answer 2

For anyone coming here in 2018 using iTerm:

• go to iTerm -> Preferences -> Profiles -> Advanced -> Semantic History
• from the dropdown, choose Open with Editor and from the right dropdown choose your editor of choice

For anyone coming here in 2022 and using iTerm2:

iTerm2 moved some things around so now it's found under

• iTerm -> Settings -> Preferences -> Profiles -> Advanced -> Semantic History

Panhellenic

Answer 3

Use git config --global core.editor mate -w or git config --global core.editor open as @dmckee suggests in the comments.

Reference: http://git-scm.com/docs/git-config

Hackle

...and setting it to use open means that you automatically get the finder default. So changes in the finder are propagated naturally. – Gaekwar

open uses Launch Services to determine the file type, mostly based on its extension. If the file has an unknown extension, it'll fail to open the file. Generally, your CLI editor should be something that assumes text files... – Snowclad

Some (very) explicit instructions would be very helpful...the reference is extremely terse. – Pankhurst

@Diogenes: See my answer on a different post if you still need more explicit help: #6435746 – Mafia

Better be git config --global core.editor "open -W" (otherwise you'll get a Aborting commit due to empty commit message. error). – Packsaddle

I agree with @Gordon Davisson. Setting your editor to something that is not a text editor is incorrect. – Intend

Answer 4

For OS X and Sublime Text

Make subl available.

Put this in ~/.bash_profile

[[ -s ~/.bashrc ]] && source ~/.bashrc

Put this in ~/.bashrc

export EDITOR=subl

Endogen

I found that this does not work correctly with chsh. The file opens, but any changes are lost. I had to use chsh -s /bin/zsh to switch shells manually. – Alphonsoalphonsus

Answer 5

Set your editor to point to this program:

/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit

With SVN, you should set SVN_EDITOR environment variable to:

$ export SVN_EDITOR=/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit

And then, when you try committing something, TextEdit will launch.

Mammillary

I'd prefer to use /usr/bin/open, because that will use the finder default whatever you set it to. – Gaekwar

How would you do the same for git? – Pankhurst

The first like is just setting EDITOR= to that, but what do I type for the second line? – Heterologous

Answer 6

For Sublime Text 3:

defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSHandlers -array-add '{LSHandlerContentType=public.plain-text;LSHandlerRoleAll=com.sublimetext.3;}'

See Set TextMate as the default text editor on Mac OS X for details.

Col

Answer 7

If you want the editor to work with git operations, setting the $EDITOR environment variable may not be enough, at least not in the case of Sublime - e.g. if you want to rebase, it will just say that the rebase was successful, but you won't have a chance to edit the file in any way, git will just close it straight away:

git rebase -i HEAD~
Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/master.

If you want Sublime to work correctly with git, you should configure it using:

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

I came here looking for this and found the solution in this gist on github.

Evocation

Answer 8

make Sublime Text 3 your default text editor: (Restart required)

defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSHandlers -array-add "{LSHandlerContentType=public.plain-text;LSHandlerRoleAll=com.sublimetext.3;}"

make sublime then your default git text editor git config --global core.editor "subl -W"

Maladminister