Change the default editor for files opened in the terminal? (e.g. set it to TextEdit/Coda/Textmate)

Question

Is there a way to make files opened for editing in the terminal open in Textedit instead?

For example, where a command might open a file for editing (like git commit), instead of opening that file in vim or emacs, it would open in Textedit (or perhaps another text editing application of your choosing, such as Coda or Sublime).

And as a bonus question, is there any way to specifically configure git to automatically open the file created after running git commit in an editor from the applications directory?

Best solution I found is using `duti` -> http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/123954/58507 — Gomino, Oct 12 '16 at 22:21
for mac os 10.10+ above solutions won't work. Try this http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/123833/replace-text-edit-as-the-default-text-editor/220496#220496 — Rishikesh Shukla, Mar 18 '17 at 20:23

score 173 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

173

Most programs will check the $EDITOR environment variable, so you can set that to the path of TextEdit in your bashrc. Git will use this as well.

How to do this:

Add the following to your ~/.bashrc file:
export EDITOR="/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit"
or just type the following command into your Terminal:
echo "export EDITOR=\"/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit\"" >> ~/.bashrc

If you are using zsh, use ~/.zshrc instead of ~/.bashrc.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

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answered Aug 22 '10 at 00:44

alternative

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Perfect, this does it. I also ran this command to make sure git works the way I would expect it to. This `git config --global --unset-all core.editor` then `git config --global --add core.editor "open -W -n"`. – Diogenes Jul 04 '11 at 20:27
Are you using a different shell? – alternative Apr 12 '13 at 01:22
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in my case, I am using `zsh` so obviously I need to update the `.zshrc` config file. – Malloc Oct 08 '13 at 15:32
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use quotes if the path to your editor has spaces, e.g. `"echo "export EDITOR=\"/Applications/Sublime Text 2.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl\"" >> ~/.bashrc"` And you may have to reload your .bashrc with: `source ~/.bashrc` – Mars Redwyne Oct 10 '13 at 19:08
Thanks, I've set nano editor as default by this. Here's how to add it to OSX: [http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20021017065800302](http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20021017065800302) – Micer Nov 05 '13 at 00:09
Mars Redwyne, I tried the quotation marks for spaces (export EDITOR=/Applications/Sublime\"Text.app/Contents/MacOS/Sublime\"Text), as well as just a slash with the space (export EDITOR=/Applications/Sublime\ Text.app/Contents/MacOS/Sublime\ Text), but neither worked, even after running the source command. Am I doing something wrong? – Michelle Glauser Jun 13 '14 at 07:49
@Michelle Glauser your quotes should go like EDITOR="/Applications/.../Sublime Text" or whatever. Across the entire EDITOR export, not just something inside it. (A whole month late on this response... oops) – alternative Jul 14 '14 at 14:01

score 48 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 13 '23 at 15:00

For anyone coming here in 2018 using iTerm:

go to iTerm -> Preferences -> Profiles -> Advanced -> Semantic History
from the dropdown, choose Open with Editor and from the right dropdown choose your editor of choice

For anyone coming here in 2022 and using iTerm2:

iTerm2 moved some things around so now it's found under

iTerm -> Settings -> Preferences -> Profiles -> Advanced -> Semantic History

Ionuț G. Stan · Answer 3 · 2010-11-01T08:24:00.790

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Use git config --global core.editor mate -w or git config --global core.editor open as @dmckee suggests in the comments.

Reference: http://git-scm.com/docs/git-config

edited Nov 01 '10 at 08:24

answered Aug 22 '10 at 00:47

Ionuț G. Stan

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...and setting it to use `open` means that you automatically get the finder default. So changes in the finder are propagated naturally. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Aug 22 '10 at 01:14
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`open` uses Launch Services to determine the file type, mostly based on its extension. If the file has an unknown extension, it'll fail to open the file. Generally, your CLI editor should be something that assumes text files... – Gordon Davisson Aug 22 '10 at 19:39
Some (very) explicit instructions would be very helpful...the reference is extremely terse. – Diogenes Nov 01 '10 at 04:54
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@Diogenes: See my answer on a different post if you still need more explicit help: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6435246/trouble-on-setting-the-git-core-editor/6435291#6435291 – X-Istence Jun 22 '11 at 05:49
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Better be `git config --global core.editor "open -W"` (otherwise you'll get a `Aborting commit due to empty commit message.` error). – rsenna Jun 26 '13 at 13:16
I agree with @Gordon Davisson. Setting your editor to something that is not a text editor is incorrect. – alternative Nov 05 '13 at 14:02

score 21 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

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For OS X and Sublime Text

Make subl available.

Put this in ~/.bash_profile

[[ -s ~/.bashrc ]] && source ~/.bashrc

Put this in ~/.bashrc

export EDITOR=subl

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

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answered Oct 09 '14 at 00:23

Kirk Strobeck

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I found that this does not work correctly with `chsh`. The file opens, but any changes are lost. I had to use `chsh -s /bin/zsh` to switch shells manually. – Cryptc Dec 30 '18 at 23:59

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 22 '10 at 00:41

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Set your editor to point to this program:

/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit

With SVN, you should set SVN_EDITOR environment variable to:

$ export SVN_EDITOR=/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit

And then, when you try committing something, TextEdit will launch.

answered Aug 22 '10 at 00:41

Pablo Santa Cruz

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I'd prefer to use `/usr/bin/open`, because that will use the finder default *whatever* you set it to. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Aug 22 '10 at 01:15
How would you do the same for git? – Diogenes Jul 03 '11 at 22:51
The first like is just setting EDITOR= to that, but what do I type for the second line? – User Jan 05 '14 at 21:58

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited Dec 20 '17 at 22:57

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For Sublime Text 3:

defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSHandlers -array-add '{LSHandlerContentType=public.plain-text;LSHandlerRoleAll=com.sublimetext.3;}'

See Set TextMate as the default text editor on Mac OS X for details.

edited Dec 20 '17 at 22:57

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 03 '14 at 07:46

KFunk

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 21 '20 at 14:43

If you want the editor to work with git operations, setting the $EDITOR environment variable may not be enough, at least not in the case of Sublime - e.g. if you want to rebase, it will just say that the rebase was successful, but you won't have a chance to edit the file in any way, git will just close it straight away:

git rebase -i HEAD~
Successfully rebased and updated refs/heads/master.

If you want Sublime to work correctly with git, you should configure it using:

git config --global core.editor "sublime -n -w"

I came here looking for this and found the solution in this gist on github.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 12 '20 at 20:32

make Sublime Text 3 your default text editor: (Restart required)

defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSHandlers -array-add "{LSHandlerContentType=public.plain-text;LSHandlerRoleAll=com.sublimetext.3;}"

make sublime then your default git text editor git config --global core.editor "subl -W"

Change the default editor for files opened in the terminal? (e.g. set it to TextEdit/Coda/Textmate)

8 Answers8

How to do this:

For OS X and Sublime Text

Linked