What is this editor opened by "git commit --amend" in Windows 10 cmd and how do I use it?

Question

Windows 10 cmd opens up this editor by default when I try to edit a GIT commit message. Can you please tell me what that is and how I can use it? Thanks.

Answer 1

It is Vim, the default editor in Git installation. It is rather hard to use if you don't know how to use it! It is not trivial as other editors like Notepad++, Emacs or Sublime Text, though it is very powerful, and when you mastered it (it takes a few month of hard work! :) ), you'l become highly productive.

However you can easily configure git to use another editor. Fire up a command line and enter:

git config --global core.editor notepad

Now Windows Notepad is your default editor in git. You can easily change it to any editor of your choice. See here or here or here.

By the way, I recommend you to put the time and learn Vim! You'll not regret it :)