How do I use vim as 'git log' editor?

Question

When I run git log, what exactly is the editor git log is using?

Also:

1. Is there anyway I can use vim as my default editor for git log?
2. If I want to search against the git log, what's the best way? Now I'm doing something like: git log | grep bla.

Cognate

The output of $ git log is not something you edit so why exactly do you want to use an editor to view it? – Mallet

@Mallet mainly just try to search it. Since the guys pointed out, less has a subset of vim search functionality, I guess I can live with less now. – Cognate

less has /, ?, n and N, it supports regex search. $ man less is a very interesting read. – Mallet

Answer 1

The git log command pipes it's output by default into a pager, not an editor. This pager is usually less or more on most systems. You can change the default pager to vim with the command:

git config --global core.pager 'vim -'

Now you can search using vim functionality with / as usual.

Hydroxide

less obeys a subset of vim search functionality – Deweese

@honk 'vim - ', what does '-' there do? – Cognate

@Shengjie: It makes vim read from STDIN. Usually a good idea to add -R for read-only mode it that case as well. – Cafard

@Shengjie: for many utilities, - as file name means stdin or stdout depending on context – Rouse

git config --global core.pager 'vim -R -' , -R is important to quit quickly – Soughtafter

Answer 2

You may want to look at viewlog.

It gives you a terminal gui interface to all commits. It will also open the file in the editor of your choice. You can search for relevant commits using the --grep flag.

Principality

Answer 3

This worked for me: git log | vim -R -

Instill

Hey, what's point of hypen behind '-R'? (I found without '-' behind '-R', it works as well) – Niemeyer

@Niemeyer this indicates "Readonly mode (like "view") – Quadrille

Answer 4

I had write a bash script to switch from using vim as editor to diff-so-fancy.

VT() {
    gitlogflag=true
    if [ -e "$HOME/.myscriptvar" ] ; then
        gitlogflag=$(cat "$HOME/.myscriptvar")
    fi
    if [ "$gitlogflag" = true ]; then
        git config --global pager.show "vim -c '%sm/\\e.\\{-}m//g' -c 'setlocal buftype=nofile' -c 'set ft=diff' +3 -";
        gitlogflag=false
    else
        git config --global pager.show "diff-so-fancy | less --tabs=1,5 -RFX";
        gitlogflag=true
    fi
    echo "$gitlogflag" > $HOME/.myscriptvar
}

I recommend you to use diff-so-fancy.

If you just want to use vim as your git log editor git config --global pager.show "vim -c '%sm/\\e.\\{-}m//g' -c will satisfy you.

Waterfowl