Commit-editmsg 〈REAL ✧〉

In the world of Git, much of the spotlight falls on commands like commit , push , merge , and rebase . Developers boast about their aliases, their branching strategies, and their elegant use of interactive rebasing. Yet, nestled quietly in the .git folder of every repository lies a humble, often-overlooked file: COMMIT-EDITMSG .

git commit --no-verify -m "Hotfix for production" Warning: Use sparingly. This is a nuclear bypass for emergency situations. It's easy to confuse COMMIT-EDITMSG with other .git files: COMMIT-EDITMSG

git commit -m "Fix bug in login flow" The -m flag is convenient for short messages, but it completely bypasses the COMMIT-EDITMSG workflow. This means you also bypass the powerful features that come with it: templates, hook validation, and multi-line editing. To truly appreciate the file, let's walk through a manual commit. Imagine you have staged changes. You run git commit . Your editor opens, and you see something like this: In the world of Git, much of the

git config --global commit.template ~/.gitmessage.txt Create ~/.gitmessage.txt : git commit --no-verify -m "Hotfix for production" Warning:

Using a prepare-commit-msg hook (a cousin that runs before the editor opens), you can read the branch name and append the ticket to COMMIT-EDITMSG :

When you run:

#!/bin/sh # .git/hooks/commit-msg message_file=$1 # This is the path to COMMIT-EDITMSG pattern="^(feat|fix|docs|style|refactor|test|chore)((.+))?: .+"