[PATCH] Allow to specify the editor used for git rebase -i by config/environment var

[PATCH] Allow to specify the editor used for git rebase -i by config/environment var

[Peter Oberndorfer]

The search order for choosing the sequence editor is:
$GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR
git config sequence.editor
git var GIT_EDITOR (default editor for commit messages)

With this change is it possible to have a separate
(possibly graphical) editor that helps the user
during a interactive rebase.

Using $GIT_EDITOR or core.editor config var for this is not possible
since they is also used to start the commit message editor for reword action.

Signed-off-by: Peter Oberndorfer <kumbayo84@arcor.de>
---
I reworded the commit message and the config description a bit.
renamed to sequence.editor / $GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR
and moved the helper to git-rebase--interactive.sh

 Documentation/config.txt   |    7 +++++++
 git-rebase--interactive.sh |   15 ++++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index 03296b7..048c5f9 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -473,6 +473,13 @@ core.editor::
 	variable when it is set, and the environment variable
 	`GIT_EDITOR` is not set.  See linkgit:git-var[1].
 
+sequence.editor::
+	Text editor used by git rebase -i for editing the rebase todo file.
+	The value is meant to be interpreted by the shell when it is used.
+	It can be overridden by the 'GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR' environment variable.
+	When not configured the default commit message editor is used instead.
+	See linkgit:git-var[1]
+
 core.pager::
 	The command that git will use to paginate output.  Can
 	be overridden with the `GIT_PAGER` environment
diff --git a/git-rebase--interactive.sh b/git-rebase--interactive.sh
index 94f36c2..13a0661 100644
--- a/git-rebase--interactive.sh
+++ b/git-rebase--interactive.sh
@@ -161,6 +161,19 @@ do_with_author () {
 	)
 }
 
+git_sequence_editor() {
+	if test -z "${GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR:+set}"
+	then
+		GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR="$(git config sequence.editor)"
+		if [ -z "$GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR" ]
+		then
+			GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR="$(git var GIT_EDITOR)" || return $?
+		fi
+	fi
+
+	eval "$GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR" '"$@"'
+}
+
 pick_one () {
 	ff=--ff
 	case "$1" in -n) sha1=$2; ff= ;; *) sha1=$1 ;; esac
@@ -832,7 +845,7 @@ has_action "$todo" ||
 	die_abort "Nothing to do"
 
 cp "$todo" "$todo".backup
-git_editor "$todo" ||
+git_sequence_editor "$todo" ||
 	die_abort "Could not execute editor"
 
 has_action "$todo" ||
-- 
1.7.7.329.g2140c

Re: [PATCH] Allow to specify the editor used for git rebase -i by config/environment var

[Junio C Hamano]

Peter Oberndorfer <kumbayo84@arcor.de> writes:

> The search order for choosing the sequence editor is:
> $GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR
> git config sequence.editor
> git var GIT_EDITOR (default editor for commit messages)
>
> With this change is it possible to have a separate
> (possibly graphical) editor that helps the user
> during a interactive rebase.
>
> Using $GIT_EDITOR or core.editor config var for this is not possible
> since they is also used to start the commit message editor for reword action.

Thanks. I'll reword the proposed commit log message before queuing,
because it won't make _any_ sense to talk about the search order before
telling what these things that are searched would do, or why they are
useful things to have.

    "rebase -i": support special-purpose editor to edit insn sheet

    The insn sheet used by "rebase -i" is designed to be easily editable by
    any text editor, but an editor that is specifically meant for it (but
    is otherwise unsuitable for editing regular text files) could be useful
    by allowing drag & drop reordering in a GUI environment, for example.

    The GIT_SEQUENCE_EDITOR environment variable and/or the sequence.editor
    configuration variable can be used to specify such an editor, while
    allowing the usual editor to be used to edit commit log messages. As
    usual, the environment variable takes precedence over the configuration
    variable.

    It is envisioned that other "sequencer" based tools will use the same
    mechanism.

    Signed-off-by: Peter Oberndorfer <kumbayo84@arcor.de>
    Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>