How to use Visual Studio Code as Default Editor for Git

Question

When using git at the command line  I am wondering if it is possible to use Visual Studio Code as the default editor  i e  when creating commit comments  and looking at a diff of a file from the command line   I understand that it won t be possible to use it for doing merges  at least at the minute  but does anyone know if it is possible to use it for looking at diff s  and if so  what command line options would be required in the  gitconfig file to make this happen   UPDATE 1   I have tried an approach similar to what I have done for Notepad   in the past  i e      bin sh   c  Program Files  x86  Notepad   notepad   exe  -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin        And used      bin sh   C  Users gep13 AppData Local Code app-0 1 0 Code exe         But this results in an error message   C  temp testrepo  master  1  0 -0  gt  git commit  8660 0504 084217 ERROR crash reporter win cc 70   Cannot initialize out-of-process crash handler Aborting commit due to empty commit message  C  temp testrepo  master  1  0 -0  gt    Code opens up correctly  with the expected content  but it isn t waiting on the response  i e  clicking save and closing the window to return to prompt   UPDATE 2   I have just heard back from one of the developers working on VSCode   Looks like this functionality currently isn t supported  -   https   twitter com IsidorN status 595501573880553472  If you are interested in seeing this feature get added  you might want to think about adding your votes here   http   visualstudio uservoice com forums 293070-visual-studio-code suggestions 7756482-support-git-configure-diff-and-merge-tools  UPDATE 3   I have been reliably informed that this feature has been picked up by the VSCode team  so I am looking forward to a future release that will include it   UPDATE 4   Thanks to  f-boucheros comment below  I have been able to get VS Code working as the default editor for commit comments  rebase  etc   I would still  like to see if it is possible to use it as the diff tool as well   UPDATE 5   As per the accepted answer for the question  this is now possible using the V1 0 release of code

User · Answer

GitPad sets your current text editor as the default editor for Git.

My default editor for .txt files in Windows 10 is Visual Studio Code and running GitPad once made it the default editor for Git. I haven't experienced the problems mentioned in the question (Git waits until VS Code window is closed in my case).

(The link for the .exe file didn't work for me, you may need to compile the source yourself.)

User · Answer

on windows 10 using the 64bit insiders edition the command should be      git config --global core editor   C  Program Files Microsoft VS Code   Insiders bin code-insiders cmd     you can also rename the  code-insiders cmd  to  code cmd  in the  Program Files  directory   in this way you can now use the command  code    to start editing the files on the   directory

User · Answer

Run this command in your Mac Terminal app  git config --global core editor   Applications Visual  Studio  Code app Contents Resources app bin code

User · Answer

I opened up my  gitconfig and amended it with    core      editor    C  Users miqid AppData Local Code app-0 1 0 Code exe    That did it for me  I m on Windows 8    However  I noticed that after I tried an arbitrary git commit that in my Git Bash console I see the following message    9168 0504 160114 INFO renderer main cc 212   Renderer process started   Unsure of what the ramifications of this might be

User · Answer

Just want to add these back slashes to previous answers  I am on Windows 10 CMD  and it doesn t work without back slashes before the spaces    git config --global core editor  C   Users  your user name  AppData  Local  Programs  Microsoft  VS  Code  Code exe

User · Answer

For what I understand  VSCode is not in AppData anymore   So Set the default git editor by executing that command in a command prompt window   git config --global core editor   C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft VS Code code exe  -w    The parameter -w  --wait is to wait for window to be closed before returning   Visual Studio Code is base on Atom Editor  if you also have atom installed execute the command atom --help  You will see the last argument in the help is wait    Next time you do a git rebase -i HEAD 3 it will popup Visual Studio Code  Once VSCode is close then Git will take back the lead   Note  My current version of VSCode is 0 9 2  I hope that help

User · Answer

git config --global core editor  quot code --wait quot   OR git config --global core editor  quot code -w quot   Check git config --global e  Your configuration will open in Visual Studio Code

User · Answer

Another useful option is to set EDITOR environment variable  This environment variable is used by many utilities to know what editor to use  Git also uses it if no core editor is set   You can set it for current session using   export EDITOR  code --wait    This way not only git  but many other applications will use VS Code as an editor   To make this change permanent  add this to your    profile for example  See this question for more options     Another advantage of this approach is that you can set different editors for different cases    When you working from local terminal  When you are connected through SSH session    This is useful especially with VS Code  or any other GUI editor  because it just doesn t work without GUI   On Linux OS  put this into your    profile     Preferred editor for local and remote sessions if    -n  SSH CONNECTION     then   SSH mode   export EDITOR  vim  else   Local terminal mode   export EDITOR  code -w  fi   This way when you use a local terminal  the  SSH CONNECTION environment variable will be empty  so the code -w editor will be used  but when you are connected through SSH  then  SSH CONNECTION environment variable will be a non-empty string  so the vim editor will be used  It is console editor  so it will work even when you are connected through SSH

User · Answer

Good news  At the time of writing  this feature has already been implemented in the 0 10 12-insiders release and carried out through 0 10 14-insiders  Hence we are going to have it in the upcoming version 1 0 Release of VS Code   Implementation Ref  Implement -w --wait command line arg

User · Answer

Im not sure you can do this  however you can try these additions in your gitconfig file    Try to replace the kdiff3 from these values to point to visual studio code executable         merge          tool   kdiff3      mergetool  kdiff3           path   C  Program Files KDiff3 kdiff3 exe         keepBackup   false         trustExitCode   false

User · Answer

I set up Visual Studio Code as a default to open  txt file  And next I did use simple command  git config --global core editor   C  Users UserName AppData Local Code app-0 7 10 Code exe     And everything works pretty well

User · Answer

In addition of export EDITOR  quot code --wait quot   note that  with VSCode v1 47  June 2020   those diff editors will survice a VSCode reload restart  See issue 99290   with commit 1428d44  diff editors now have a chance to survive reloads and this works OK unless the diff editor on a git resource is opened as the active one     and commit 24f1b69 fixes that

User · Answer

You need to use command    git config --global core editor   C  Program Files Microsoft VS Code code exe  -n -w    Make sure you can start your editor from Git Bash  If you want to use Code exe with short path  you can do this by adding the following line to your  bash profile   alias vscode  C  Program  Files Microsoft  VS  Code Code exe    And now  you can call it using only vscode command or whatever you named it   Some additional info        Setup will add Visual Studio Code to your    PATH   so from the console you can type  code  to open VS Code on   that folder  You will need to restart your console after the   installation for the change to the  PATH  environmental variable to   take effect

User · Answer

In the most recent release  v1 0  released in March 2016   you are now able to use VS Code as the default git commit diff tool  Quoted from the documentations         Make sure you can run code --help from the command line and you get   help           if you do not see help  please follow these steps          Mac  Select Shell Command  Install  Code  command in path from the Command   Palette          Command Palette is what pops up when you press shift       P while inside VS    Code    shift   ctrl   P in Windows       Windows  Make sure you selected Add to PATH during the   installation     Linux  Make sure you installed Code via our new  deb or    rpm packages           From the command line  run git config --global core editor  code --wait          Now you can run git config --global -e and use VS Code as editor for configuring Git       Add the following to enable support for using VS Code as diff tool     diff      tool   default-difftool  difftool  default-difftool       cmd   code --wait --diff  LOCAL  REMOTE      This leverages the new --diff option you can pass to VS Code to   compare two files side by side       To summarize  here are some examples of where you can use Git with VS   Code          git rebase HEAD 3 -i allows to interactive rebase using VS Code   git commit allows to use VS Code for the commit message   git add -p followed by e for interactive add    git difftool  lt commit gt    lt commit gt  allows to use VS Code as diff editor for changes

[git] How to use Visual Studio Code as Default Editor for Git

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