Git commit messages lost by vi

Question

I'm a clumsy typist, and I don't use vi/vim very often, but I do use it for commit messages. However, if you type a wrong command while editing a commit message (:Wq, say, instead of :wq), when you correctly close out the commit message in vim with :wq or :x, you get this:

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

Normally, a wrong command like :W is no problem—vim just ignores it and you can keep on working with the file and save it, but in git commit messages as soon as I mistype, I have irrevocably lost the commit message.

What's going on here, and how do I fix it? (Using git 1.9.1 via homebrew, vim 7.3 as packaged with OS X 10.9)

Answer 1

You should set vim to not detach from the shell and be in the foreground. You can do this with the following command:

git config --global core.editor vim -f 

From the man:

   -f          Foreground.  For the GUI version, Vim will not fork and detach from the shell it                was  started in.  On the Amiga, Vim is not restarted to open a new window.  This                option should be used when Vim is executed by a program that will wait  for  the                edit  session  to  finish (e.g. mail).  On the Amiga the ":sh" and ":!" commands                will not work.