When I use git commit --amend or git rebase -i, vim opens up for me to make changes. If I then change my mind and exit vim without making any changes, a commit is still made which shows up in git reflog.
How do I exit the editor without committing anything?
:cq! This will force an error to Vim and it will not save any changes. Link to Vim manual.
You may want to use cq without ! if you want vim to exit with an error and without saving.
When you haven't made changes and saved them, :q! could suffice (in a plain commit; when you're not amending), but if you are like me, chances are you've already (even unconsciously) persisted the edited message.
Git (and other such tools that use Vim to edit a message) will abort the entire process (and ignore any saved changes to the message) if the editor quits with a non-success exit status. You can do that in Vim with the :cq[uit]! command.
You may want to use cq without ! if you want vim to exit with an error and without saving.
:cq, but -1 for :q! - this isn't correct, it just keeps the pre-amended commit message and applies any actual staged changes.
:q! doesn't work here, as it does in the case of a normal commit!? I just mangled my repo amending uncommitted added files I wasn't aware of, because of that.To get git to not make a change when you are executing git commit --amend or git rebase -i.
Just delete the message (and save). All git does is look for a non empty message to see if a valid commit happened. Since there is a commit message (because you commited something before) git thinks that its a valid commit or rebase.
the git appication runs the editor application, and if the editor application returnes unsuccessfully (non-zero exitcode) the git application recognizes this and stops further processing.
in vim you can perform this with :cq!
from the vim manual:
:cq :cquit :cq[uit][!] Quit Vim with an error code, so that the compiler will not compile the same file again. WARNING: All changes in files are lost! Also when the [!] is not used. It works like ":qall!" :qall, except that Vim returns a non-zero exit code. this works for svn, too! the difference AFAIK between svn and git is, that svn don't like empty commit messages and stops when you quit with :q! (even if the exitcode is 0) but for git this is ok. for both it is not ok, if the editor gives an non-zero exitcode.
exitcodes are a very fundamental concept in unix/linux and and easy way to inform the caller application if everyhing was ok (exitcode 0) or something went wrong.
cq with the ! it forces vim to save whereas without ! it closes the editor with an error without saving.
git reflogis local to that working copy. It's the chronological history of your HEAD rather than the logical history.:q!.