: You are 30 lines deep into explaining a complex bug fix in your editor. You hit save, close the tab, but the terminal shows: Aborting commit due to pre-commit hook failure . Recovery : You panic, thinking your message is lost. It is not. Open .git/COMMIT_EDITMSG in any text editor. Your full message is waiting for you. Fix the hook issue, and run git commit again; Git will open that same saved message for you.
The footer is for information that isn't necessarily meant for a human reading a log for fun, but is vital for tools. COMMIT-EDITMSG
: The empty space at the top is where you type your subject line and body. : You are 30 lines deep into explaining
Aim for consistency and clarity by structuring your messages effectively. The widely adopted specification provides a simple framework for this. The typical structure looks like this: It is not
: Git pauses its execution and launches your configured text editor (e.g., Vim, VS Code, Nano), passing the path .git/COMMIT_EDITMSG to it.