Please enter a commit message to explain why this merge is necessary, especially if it merges an updated upstream into a topic branch

macos git-merge git-commit git

I am using Git. I did a pull from a remote repo and got an error message:

Please enter a commit message to explain why this merge is necessary, especially if it merges an updated upstream into a topic branch.

I try to type a message and press Enter but nothing happens.

How do I tell Git/Terminal I am done typing in my message?

I am using Terminal on OS X.

It appears that your GIT is configured to open a pre-configured template and that template is getting opened through default editor (vi/vim).

Abort this merge & try to use git pull --rebase.

Form me "Shift ZZ" solves the issue

Sajid Zeb

It's not a Git error message, it's the editor as git uses your default editor.

To solve this:

press "i" (i for insert) write your merge message press "esc" (escape) write ":wq" (write & quit) then press enter

Ok, but this is assuming his editor is vi or vim.

that's hella complicated

If it helps anyone, the way you remember this is that "i" is for "insert", "esc" is the exit the insertion, and ":wq" is just "write" and "quit".

To make life easier just follow step-4: write ":wq" then press enter

This might as well be ↑↑↓↓←→←→BA

Top-Master

Actually it's not an error! It means you should enter some message to mark this merge.

My OS is Ubuntu 14.04. If you use the same OS, you just need to do this as follows:

Type some message CtrlCO Type the file name (such as "Merge_feature01") and press Enter CtrlX to exit

Now if you go to .git and you will find the file "Merge_feature01", that's the merge log actually.

I wonder how someone would know this? It's so strange how this works. Thanks for answering this.

@ScottyBlades why on earth should it? the question is tagged osx, and this answer concerns how Ubuntu sets up an entirely different setup for Git (using nano or pico), which is not applicable to the OS X setup. It is in no way generalizable and also doesn't provide insight into how it works, hence the comment left by @AdrianCarr. There are far better answers now.

What is the name of the editor that corresponds to this answer?

It looks vaguely like this assumes your editor is nano. It has an obnoxious bar across the bottom which tells you some of the keyboard shortcuts.

oligofren

tl;dr ✨ Use an $EDITOR that you like! ✨

The fix is not to memorize cryptic commands, like in the accepted answer, but configuring Git to use an editor that you like and understand!

The underlying problem is that Git by default uses an editor that is too unintuitive to use for most people: Vim. This is because Vim is present everywhere, not because it is user friendly 😄 Now, don't get me wrong, I ❤️ Vim, and while you could set some time aside to learn Vim and try to understand why some people think Vim is the greatest editor in existence, there is a quicker way of fixing this problem :-)

It's really as simple as configuring either of these options

the git config setting core.editor (per project, or globally) the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variable (this works for other programs as well). Typically stuffing export VISUAL="vscode --wait" into your .bashrc or similar config.

I'll cover the first option for a couple of popular editors, but GitHub has an excellent guide on this for many editors as well.

🔥 To use Atom

Straight from its docs, enter this in a terminal:

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

Git normally wait for the editor command to finish before progressing, but since Atom forks to a background process immediately, this won't work, unless you give it the --wait option. This makes it stay as a foreground process, just as we want.

🦄 To use Sublime Text

For the same reasons as in the Atom case, you need a special flag to signal to the process that it shouldn't fork to the background:

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

🤓 To use Visual Studio Code

git config --global core.editor "code --wait"

Vim doesn't take a month. it takes two days and you never forget as long as you keep a handy cheat sheet you'll need from time to time, at first.

Use a CUA terminal editor like micro: micro-editor.github.io

Developer Guy

Just Do,

CTRL + X

CTRL + C

It will ask you to save file, Press Y, then you are done.

This is if your default editor is "pico" or "nano" The above comments should be used if your default editor is vim.

K.Dᴀᴠɪs

Instead, you could git CtrlZ and retry the commit but this time add " -m " with a message in quotes after it, then it will commit without prompting you with that page.

lol this would definitely solve the OP's problem. git commit -m 'I did blah'

I have git version 1.7.11.4 on a linux terminal, and despite the fact that I give git commit -m "message" or git commit --message "message", still the editor pop ups from time to time, requesting a message. Does anybody knows why the "-m" switch is ignored?

Ankush Jain

Since your local repository is few commits ahead, git tries to merge your remote to your local repo. This can be handled via merge, but in your case, perhaps you are looking for rebase, i.e. add your commit to the top. You can do this with

git rebase or git pull --rebase

Here is a good article explaining the difference between git pull & git pull --rebase.

https://www.derekgourlay.com/blog/git-when-to-merge-vs-when-to-rebase/

This has nothing to do with this issue directly: "How do I tell Git/Terminal I am done typing in my message?". The user needs to set his editor in the global git config or set the EDITOR variable.

Vladimir

In my case i got this message after merge. Decision: press esc, after this type :qa!

Is this really a helpful answer after over 6 years?...

I think so, because i because I ran into these yesterday

This is superfluous and covered by the accepted answer.

Please enter a commit message to explain why this merge is necessary, especially if it merges an updated upstream into a topic branch

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