Formatting GitHub commit messages from shell

Question

I just read Writing good commit messages and liked it a lot. The problem is, I prefer the command line (plain ole' git).

• How can I add newlines and tabs to commit messages, so as to have a "summary line" and message body (which may consist of several paragraphs)?
• Does GitHub support markdown in their commit messages? After reading "Shiny new commit styles" this doesn't seem possible

Answer 1

1. For newline, just hit enter inside quotes, like this: git commit -m "Some headline <hit enter>. Also you can use your text editor to write commit messages.

2. Unfortunately no, e.g. this commit with markdown for example.

Answer 2

git automatically spawns your preferred $EDITOR to prompt for a commit message when you run git commit. So it may be as simple as leaving -m off of your git commit command

If git launches the wrong editor, or fails to launch an editor, try setting the EDITOR environment variable to your preferred editor:

export EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim

Or, to only change the editor used by git, you can set core.editor

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

Using an editor to compose a commit message this way has a couple of further advantages. Git populates the file you are editing with a summary of the files that were changed in the commit, which should help you write a better commit message. Also, vim (and other editors) support basic syntax highlighting for this kind of file, making it even easier.