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Be Hai Nguyen
Be Hai Nguyen

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Windows 10: multi-line Git Commit messages.

In Windows 10, how to do multi-line messages for a Git commit.

On Windows 10, my git CLI version is 2.37.3.windows.1. I am describing how do multi-line messages for a Git commit.

A git commit command, can take one (1) or two (2) text parameters, like so:

git commit -m "First message."
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git commit -m "First message." -m "Detail description."
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We can make "Detail description." a multi-line description as in the following example: we check in D:\learn-git>some_js_funcs.js, we have to issue 3 (three) commands:

⓵ First command, add the file to be checked in (i.e. committed):

D:\learn-git>git add some_js_funcs.js
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⓶ Second command, commit with a multi-line description:

D:\learn-git>git commit -m "Major refactoring." -m "Added:"^

"function runAjax( method, ..., errorCallback )."^

"const onAjaxErrorUseDialog = ( xhr, error, errorThrown ) => displayError( xhr, error, errorThrown );"^

"const onAjaxErrorUseForm = ( xhr, error, errorThrown ) => setFormErrorText( errorThrown );"^

""^

"Removed:"^

"function retrieveData( method, endPoint, csrfToken, data, successCallback )"^

"function saveData( endPoint, csrfToken, data, successCallback )"^

""^

"function jsonViewerDialog( jsonData, params ) moved to fullscreen_dialogs.js."^

""^

"Bug fixed:"^

"function clearFormInfoText() -- set '#firstMsg' to ' ' instead of blank."
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It should be apparent that we prepare this command in a text editor, and just copy and paste this command to the command line console. Note that:

  • Each message is enclosed within a pair of double quotes, i.e. "function runAjax( method, ..., errorCallback )."^.
  • There is a caret ^ character at the end of each line, except the last line.
  • THERE MUST BE NOTHING ELSE AFTER THE caret ^ character. A single space did cause a problem for me.
  • ""^ inserts a blank line into the Git commit description.
  • There is a blank line follows each text line, again except the last line.

⓷ Third and last command, push to the remote repo:

D:\learn-git>git push -u origin main
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The second command will pause twice for our input. The first phase, we just click on the Paste anyway button, the second phase, we just hit the Enter key -- please see illustrations:

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The multi-line description as seen in the repo UI:

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I took me a few tries to get this working on Windows 10: I document so if I forget, I can look it up later... This would not work on a Linux environment, or at least I have not tested yet. Thank you for reading, I hope you find this useful. Stay safe as always.

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