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

Question

How do I use Notepad++ (or any other editor besides vim) with msysgit?

I tried all of the following to no avail:

git config --global core.editor C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe

git config --global core.editor "C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe"

git config --global core.editor C:/Program Files/Notepad++/notepad++.exe

git config --global core.editor C:\\Program Files\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe

Solution 1

Update 2010-2011:

zumalifeguard's solution (upvoted) is simpler than the original one, as it no longer needs 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.

---

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

---

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 "$(cygpath -w "$*")"

---

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"'
  

Solution 2

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

Solution 3

This works for me

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

Solution 4

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:

Solution 5

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

View more solutions

Comments

[csl]

Any error messages? Have you tried setting the EDITOR environment variable?

[JasonTrue]

Try looking here: stackoverflow.com/questions/10564/…

[Jim Fell]

Possible duplicate of How can I set up an editor to work with Git on Windows?

[warnabas]

I got this to work by placing npp.sh in the root of my drive (ie - C:/npp.sh). Any time I try to target a folder with spaces (ie - D:/Program Files (x86)/Git/npp.sh) in it it fails, what's the proper way to escape spaces and/or get this to work?

[Fred]

put quotes around it. See how he has quotes around the entire thing in his example?

[scphantm]

I have tried multiple combinations of the above and none work with git. i have my npp script in my path and if from my cygwin console i type, "npp {file}" npp opens the file just fine, but when i do a "git rebase -i" npp opens with a blank file instead of the merge file. any ideas why this would happen?

[VonC]

@scphantm strange. I would advise for posting a new question, with a link to this answer, and many more details (Git version, OS version, npp version, content of the script, ...)

[Matt]

works in git extensions too. note that for 64bit windows the entry is "C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe" -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin

[Oskar Berggren]

The silly thing is that -notabbar will disable the tab bar permanently, not just for that session. When launchin notepad++ normally, you have to go into the settings dialog an enable the tab bar again.

[David Faivre]

I had to use: git config --global core.editor "c\:/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe -multiInst -nosession -noPlugin" ...not sure why.

[Chirayu Shishodiya]

git rebase was not rebasing my commits. I was amending them using notepad++.exe. I changed the editor settings of git config as mentioned in this answer and magically git rebase started rebasing. I suspect it is to do with the parameters being passed in to notepad++.exe.

[Radu Murzea]

I have Windows 7 64-bit, msysgit v1.9.2 and Notepad++ v6.6.9 and this worked PERFECTLY. Thanks.

[Shridutt Kothari]

i did the same.. now how to open notepad++ to commit with message?? what is the commad?? please can you give an example

[Adam McKee]

You can use backslashes if you escape them, i.e. "C:\\Program..."

[CodeManX]

Any reason why it shall launch a new Notepad++ process, without session, plugins and tab bar? Doesn't it work if it's already running?

[blubberdiblub]

@CoDEmanX Without -multiInst it will likely just signal the already running Notepad++ to open the file and then exit immediately. This can be a big problem if whatever calls the editor expects it to return only when done editing (i. e. a synchronous operation, as is the case when calling vi). Try an interactive rebase (git rebase -i), for instance. If this still works as expected, then you're fine.

[blubberdiblub]

Adding the -multiInst option is crucial here, like in the other answers.

[Bhushan Gadekar]

but how to launch notepad++ within git repo?

[kkm]

This is not good for two reasons. First, if the C: volume is NTFS with the 8.3 filename option turned off, there is no C:\Progra~1 at all. Second, there may be multiple C:\Progra* directories, so the ~1 suffix is not necessarily the valid one.

[Ofer]

Thanks! Worked for me, but with a slight edit: git config --global core.editor "'C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe' -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin".

[zumalifeguard]

Ofer, I see that the only change you made is changing the forward slashes to backslashes. Did you do it because the forward slashes didn't work?

[Hilikus]

For even cooler integration, add "-ldiff". this will add syntax highlighting

[AtliB]

That did the trick for me! Afterwards the .gitconfig looks like: [core] editor = \"c:\\Program Files (x86)\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe\" -multiInst -nosession -noPlugin

[AtliB]

See highest voted answer, which includes this (I didn't read far enough)

[oleksa]

Update 2020: seems that you've missed the options to open new notepad instance. I've used from cmd.exe git config --global core.editor "c:\\soft\\notepad++\\notepad++.exe -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin" and it is working from both cmd terminal and git bash