commit message empty, fossil not waiting for save

(1) By matt w. (maphew) on 2021-10-25 00:16:48 [source]

When I commit without using -m "..." commandline message parameter fossil creates the temp file but doesn't wait for the file to be saved by the external app but returns immediately saying the message is empty.

C:\Users\mhwilkie\code\mypdq>fossil commit --private
C:\Windows\notepad.exe ./ci-comment-E57278DF93F2.txt
empty check-in comment.  continue (y/N)?

I have Windows set to globally to replace Microsoft Notepad with Notepad++ (by means of Notepad Replacer).

There is a command line that is purported to work for git but it doesn't seem to work for fossil:

notepad++.exe -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin %*

References

https://npp-user-manual.org/docs/command-prompt/
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10564/how-can-i-set-up-an-editor-to-work-with-git-on-windows

(2) By matt w. (maphew) on 2021-10-25 00:23:01 in reply to 1 [link] [source]

I think this is a NPP problem. When it starts it has a prompt like "ci-comment-E57278DF93F2.txt doesn't exist, create it?", however when a different editor is used the ci-file is created and populated with some guidance comments ("lines beginning with # are ignored ...etc").

It turns out Visual Studio Code works quite well instead (and even has a fossil extension).

D:\> fossil setting editor "code -n -w"

-n = new window
-w = wait

(3) By Stephan Beal (stephan) on 2021-10-25 03:49:24 in reply to 2 [link] [source]

I think this is a NPP problem.

More generally, it's a problem with any editor which immediately forks and returns to the calling process (or does whatever the equivalent of that is on Windows). Some editors have a flag to tell it to not do so, and that's required for purposes of using it to write checkin messages.

An alternate approach is to write the message in a text file in advance and use the -M FILENAME flag (capital M) instead of -m ... (lower-case m).

(4) By graham on 2021-10-25 09:43:58 in reply to 2 [link] [source]

I haven't got Notepad++ to try it with, but you might try:

fossil setting editor "start /wait notepad++"

Depending on how Notepad++ works, this may fix the problem.

The problem stems from Windows having two types of EXE file: Console and GUI. The first runs with stdin/stdout connected and (normally) waits for the process to exit before returning to the process that started it. The latter (as the name implies) has a graphical interface, does not have an attached console, and normally returns to the caller immediately. START /WAIT is part of CMD.EXE that will wait for the latter type to exit.

(5) By sean (jungleboogie) on 2021-10-25 14:05:20 in reply to 1 [link] [source]

I remember having this issue with trying to use Visual Studio Code.

https://www.mail-archive.com/fossil-users@lists.fossil-scm.org/msg26046.html

I don't know if that will help you out, though.

(6) By matt w. (maphew) on 2021-10-26 12:24:30 in reply to 5 [link] [source]

Yep, I just switched to using vs-code instead of notepad++, using essentially the same solution as in your thread (here). Code is slightly more heavyweight than Notepad++ because of the extensions I have installed, but it's not that noticeable.