How do I use Notepad++ (or other) with msysgit?

Question

git config --global core.editor "'C:/Program Files/Notepad++/notepad++.exe' -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin"

Or, for 64-bit Windows and a 32-bit install of Notepad++:

git config --global core.editor "'C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe' -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin"

Or, the following can be issued on the command line on either 32-bit or 64-bit Windows. It will pull the location of notepad++.exe from the registry and configure git to use it automatically:

FOR /F "usebackq tokens=2*" %A IN (`REG QUERY "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\notepad++.exe" /ve`) DO git config --global core.editor "'%B' -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin"

If you wish to place the above from a .BAT or .CMD file, you must replace %A with %%A and %B with %%B

Update 2010-2011:

zumalifeguard's solution (upvoted) is simpler than the original one, as it doesn't need anymore a shell wrapper script.

As I explain in "How can I set up an editor to work with Git on Windows?", I prefer a wrapper, as it is easier to try and switch editors, or change the path of one editor, without having to register said change with a git config again.
But that is just me.

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Additional information: the following solution works with Cygwin, while the zuamlifeguard's solution does not.

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Original answer.

The following:

C:\prog\git>git config --global core.editor C:/prog/git/npp.sh

C:/prog/git/npp.sh:
#!/bin/sh
"c:/Program Files/Notepad++/notepad++.exe" -multiInst "$*"

does work. Those commands are interpreted as shell script, hence the idea to wrap any windows set of commands in a sh script.
(As Franky comments: "Remember to save your .sh file with Unix style line endings or receive mysterious error messages!")

More details on the SO question How can I set up an editor to work with Git on Windows?

Note the '-multiInst' option, for ensuring a new instance of notepad++ for each call from Git.

Note also that, if you are using Git on Cygwin (and want to use Notepad++ from Cygwin), then scphantm explains in "using Notepad++ for Git inside Cygwin" that you must be aware that:

git is passing it a cygwin path and npp doesn't know what to do with it

So the script in that case would be:

#!/bin/sh
"C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe" -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin "$(cygpath -w "$*")"

Multiple lines for readability:

#!/bin/sh
"C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe" -multiInst -notabbar \
  -nosession -noPlugin "$(cygpath -w "$*")"

With "$(cygpath -w "$*")" being the important part here.

Val commented (and then deleted) that you should not use -notabbar option:

It makes no good to disable the tab during rebase, but makes a lot of harm to general Notepad usability since -notab becomes the default setting and you must Settings>Preferences>General>TabBar> Hide>uncheck every time you start notepad after rebase. This is hell. You recommended the hell.

So use rather:

#!/bin/sh
"C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe" -multiInst -nosession -noPlugin "$(cygpath -w "$*")"

That is:

#!/bin/sh
"C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe" -multiInst -nosession \
  -noPlugin "$(cygpath -w "$*")"

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If you want to place the script 'npp.sh' in a path with spaces (as in 'c:\program files\...',), you have three options:

• Either try to quote the path (single or double quotes), as in:

  git config --global core.editor 'C:/program files/git/npp.sh'
  

• or try the shortname notation (not fool-proofed):

  git config --global core.editor C:/progra~1/git/npp.sh
  

• or (my favorite) place 'npp.sh' in a directory part of your %PATH% environment variable. You would not have then to specify any path for the script.

  git config --global core.editor npp.sh
  

• Steiny reports in the comments having to do:

  git config --global core.editor '"C:/Program Files (x86)/Git/scripts/npp.sh"'
  

This works for me

git config --global core.editor C:/Progra~1/Notepad++/notepad++.exe

git config core.editor "\"C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe\""

As of Git for Windows v2.15.0 (October 30th 2017) it is now possible to configure nano or Notepad++ as Git's default editor instead of vim.

During the installation you'll see the following screen:

I use the approach with PATH variable. Path to Notepad++ is added to system's PATH variable and then core.editor is set like following:

git config --global core.editor notepad++

Also, you may add some additional parameters for Notepad++:

git config --global core.editor "notepad++.exe -multiInst"

(as I detailed in "Git core.editor for Windows")

And here you can find some options you may use when stating Notepad++ Command Line Options.