unable to set notepad++ as editor for git in PowerShell

Question

I'm using Powershell ISE on a 64-bit Windows machine and when I type:

git config --list --show-origin I go down to the core.editor section and see:

core.editor = 'C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe' -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin

as is suggested here: How can I set up an editor to work with Git on Windows?

However, when I type git commit hoping for the editor to open, I get the following error:

git : error: cannot spawn notepad++: No such file or directory
At line:1 char:1
+ git commit
+ ~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (error: cannot s...le or directory:String) [], RemoteException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandError
 
error: unable to start editor 'notepad++'
Please supply the message using either -m or -F option.

So the error seems to be telling me I don't have notepad++ when I definitely do. Please help. I've been looking around for a while and have been unable to make any progress.

You could reinstall git. There is an option to choose the default text editor tool. I choosed VS Code. — Kai W, Mar 10 '22 at 08:52

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 10 '22 at 11:05

Depending on what git version you have, you should have in the .gitconfig an entry like this

[core]
    editor = 'C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe' -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin

instead of something like

core.editor = 'C:/Pr....

but to be sure, you can run in the powershell directly the command:

git config --global core.editor "myEditor"

no matter which version of git you use, git will write it right in the config file...

in your case:

git config --global core.editor "'C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe' -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin"

i tried reinstalling git and notepad++ but i get the same error. my computer is behind a firewall would that matter? — jvalenti, Mar 15 '22 at 13:08

unable to set notepad++ as editor for git in PowerShell

1 Answers1