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I recently $ git add . some changes I made to one of my repositories followed by $ git commit -m'INcorrect commit message'.

I decided to change the incorrect commit message to 'Correct commit message' using:

$ git commit --amend

The instructions I followed to do this can be found here: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Rewriting-History#Changing-Multiple-Commit-Messages

I use Atom, so Atom opens with 'INcorrect commit message' displayed, which I change to 'Correct commit message' and save my changes.

After I saved the altered commit message, I did a $ git log -1 expecting to see 'Correct commit message'; however, I still see 'INcorrect commit message.'

What exactly am I doing wrong?

Note

Just prior to this, I changed my git editor from Sublime to Atom following these instructions: How do I make Git use the editor of my choice for commits?

I basically used:

$ git config --global core.editor "atom"

and

$ export GIT_EDITOR=atom

I realize now that I didn't have to do both, but I also realize this probably didn't hurt either.

gangelo
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    If you use something other than Atom as your editor (e.g., "vim" or "nano", etc), is the behavior the same? – larsks Mar 04 '18 at 13:53
  • @larsks will give it a go sometime later today. – gangelo Mar 04 '18 at 14:13
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    See https://stackoverflow.com/q/37706443/1256452 but note that it may be broken in the current version of atom: https://stackoverflow.com/q/48886343/1256452 – torek Mar 04 '18 at 18:39

1 Answers1

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There were two things that fixed this for me.

One

As @torek pointed out in his comment attached to my original post, setting the --wait argument when invoking Atom blocks git from returning from the $ git commit --amend command. Apparently, this is necessary for git to successfully capture the altered commit message, rather than returning before the message has even been altered. Makes sense.

$ git config --global core.editor "atom --wait"

Two

Apparently, if I did not explicitly save my altered commit message (command + s on mac), it would never get saved. This I had to do in order to get the commit message to recognize my altered commit message.

This might seem pretty obvious at first; however, if I altered my commit message and clicked the close window button ('x' at the top-left of the window on mac), something strange would happen...

If I altered my commit message, close Atom using the close window button ('x'), and then subsequently execute a $ git log -1 command, the commit message would show the original unaltered commit message. Nothing strange there.

However, if I then executed another $ git commit --amend command, Atom would open and display the altered commit message from the previous $ git commit --amend command! This is very strange behavior if you ask me. Not being a git guru, lets just say this didn't clear up any confusion for me.

Bottom line

Append the --wait argument ($ git config --global core.editor "atom --wait"), and explicitly save your altered commit message in Atom (command + s on mac) when performing a $ git commit --amend.

gangelo
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