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When committing changes in Magit, it is useful to have the diff view open while adding details about the commit.

In Magit, we see the diff in the *magit ..* buffer. When you hit cc while the cursor is on a Staged file, the Magit commit buffer .. COMMIT_EDITMSG pops up. By default, this new buffer replaces the *magit ..* buffer that was showing the commit diffs.

QUESTION - How do I make the .. COMMIT_EDITMSG buffer open in a new window (reuse a different window or create a new window if the frame had just 1 window to begin with) so that I can see both the *magit ..* and .. COMMIT_EDITMSG buffers?

Kaushal Modi
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2 Answers2

19

It is possible to configure how a buffer opens (in the same frame/window or a different frame/window) using display-buffer-alist. Refer to the references below to learn more about this variable.

Solution

We need to tell emacs to always open buffers ending with COMMIT_EDITMSG in a window but not in the same (*magit ..*) window.

Add the following snippet to the init.el after (require 'magit) to specify this action.

(add-to-list 'display-buffer-alist
                 '(".*COMMIT_EDITMSG". ((display-buffer-pop-up-window) .
                                        ((inhibit-same-window . t)))))

Breakdown of the solution

display-buffer-alist is an alist that calls a FUNCTION (or a list of functions) with ALIST parameters when a CONDITION is true. The display-buffer-alist can be represented as,

'(CONDITION . (FUNCTION . ALIST))
  • Here CONDITION is that the buffer name ends with COMMIT_EDITMSG and that is represented by ".*COMMIT_EDITMSG".
  • The FUNCTION to call is display-buffer-pop-up-window as we want to create a window for this buffer. Instead of specifying the function by itself it's put in as a list of a single function (display-buffer-pop-up-window)so that more functions can be easily added to the list if needed in future.
  • The ALIST contains (inhibit-same-window . t) as we don't want this buffer to open in the same window.

References

Community
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Kaushal Modi
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2

Starting with v2.1.0 Magit by default shows the changes that are being committed alongside the buffer used to write the commit message.

tarsius
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