title: How do I get COMMIT_EDITMSG to open from the correct location?
body: <p>I'm new to GIT. I downloaded GIT for Windows from a GitHub link a few days ago. I'm using the command line tool <em>MinGW32</em>. I'm not comfortable with the default editor so I've been trying to set up my favourite editor.</p>
  
  <p>I followed the instructions <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/7549705/1862009">here</a> to use
  EditPad Pro as my editor. But I keep getting the following message:</p>
  
  <p><code>Aborting commit due to empty commit message.</code></p>
  
  <p>EditPad Pro opens a new instance. MinGW32 is waiting because I don't get the abort message until after I close EditPad Pro. When the editor opens, it opens with a blank file called <code>COMMIT_EDITMSG</code>. When I close the editor, the file saves to the main directory for the repo.</p>
  
  <p>I found a clue in <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/2988154/1862009">this answer</a>, specifically this phrase:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>[Vim] saves the file to .git/COMMIT_EDITMSG by default</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>If I do a <em>Save As</em> to save the file to the .git directory before closing the editor, then it works. However, there are two problems with that:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>I have to remember to <em>Save As</em></li>
  <li>I don't get the helpful comments that Git adds by default to COMMIT_EDITMSG</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>The current config setting for <code>core.editor</code> is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>"'D:\Program Files\JGsoft\EditPadPro5\EditPad Pro.exe' //newinstance"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm not sure what the <code>$*</code> mentioned in the instructions is for, but I tried it with and without that and also assorted variations with and without single/double quotes. I tried setting the value in a shell script as well. At worst, it doesn't work at all (e.g. won't even open the editor) and at best it opens a blank file.</p>
  
  <p>How do I get my editor to open with the file that Git created in the .git directory?</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong> I get the exact same results whether I use <code>$*</code> or not, and <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/1083830/1862009">this answer</a> says it's not needed. <a href="http://git-scm.com/book/en/Customizing-Git-Git-Configuration" rel="nofollow noreferrer">This <em>Git Pro</em> page</a> makes mention of it when explaining how to set up external merge and diff tools, but makes no mention of it when explaining the <code>core.editor</code> config setting. Note: I also tried <code>%*</code>.</p>
  
  <p>If the <code>$*</code> variable was needed (and missing), I would think that EditPad Pro would open with a blank <em>Untitled</em> file rather than a blank COMMIT_EDITMSG file in the current directory. The problem seems to be the path.</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong> I've done more experimenting. I have spaces in my file path and I thought that might be causing a problem. I cloned my repo into a new directory with no spaces in the name and fixed my config variables. It didn't solve the problem. But I noticed another problem. In some of my tests, the blank file that was loaded into the editor was named <code>$@</code>.</p>