MacOS – error: There was a problem with the editor ‘vi’ when using it with git

gitmacosterminalvi

I have this strange problem with using vi as the editor for git commit -a.

Normal flow is: I type git commit -a, vi appears, I enter my commit message, and then :wq to save & exit from vi.

This works fine. However, sometimes I make a typo and instead of :wq I type :Wq (because I use the shift for :). Then, when I correct myself and type :wq again, git gives the following error:

error: There was a problem with the editor 'vi'.
Please supply the message using either -m or -F option.

How can I fix this?

Best Answer

vi is existing with a non-zero status, although without additional details about your setup, it's difficult to tell why. If you're using a lot of plugins to vim, you might try moving your .vimrc file to .vimrc.back and seeing if you can replicate. There are a few sources that discuss this problem, including at least one with a potential solution:

git config --global core.editor /usr/bin/vim

I would try removing your .vimrc first, however. It seems to cause more consternation.

Related Solutions

How to rename a file in git that differs by case only

As asked and answered on stackoverflow, there's an easier way to do this that doesn't involve making a new file system in a disk image file:

Move your existing file aside, commit that move, then move it back using the case you'd like it to maintain and commit. Done.

Example:

mv foo foo2
git add -A
git commit -m "renaming"
mv foo2 FOO
git add -A
git commit --amend -m "renamed foo to FOO"

How to work around a “Could not resolve host: (nil)…” error when installing/using Homebrew

Seems that you have problems connecting to github via https.

While I'm not sure what could cause it and how to fix it, you still can use git with another protocol.

Here's the commands to install homebrew in /usr/local/ from scratch using git:// instead of https://:

cd /usr/local/
git init -q
git remote add origin git://github.com/mxcl/homebrew
git fetch origin master:refs/remotes/origin/master -n
git reset --hard origin/master

That should work. Please notice that if you choose to use another directory for homebrew, you probably will have to append its ./bin directory to your environment PATH variable for comfortable usage.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to rename a file in git that differs by case only

How to work around a “Could not resolve host: (nil)…” error when installing/using Homebrew

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