Unable to change the default editor in the terminal - bash

Question

My default editor is Pico at my server. I use Bash and Linux.
I tried to change Vim to be my default editor unsuccessfully by:
echo vim > $EDITOR
How can I change Vim to be my default editor?
The following code does not work in file .bashrc:
export EDITOR='vim'

Answer 1

Adding
export EDITOR=vim
to your .bashrc file should really do the trick. (Quotes aren't necessary there and, depending on what quotes you used, they may be the cause for your problem.)
You must open a new shell (or enter source ~/.bashrc at the prompt) after modifying file .bashrc for the modification to take effect.
What is the program from which you want Vim to be started?
I haven't used Git, but the documentation reads:
The editor used to edit the commit log message will be chosen from the GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the core.editor configuration variable, the VISUAL environment variable, or the EDITOR environment variable (in that order).
So check whether one of these variables is set:
echo $GIT_EDITOR $VISUAL $EDITOR
git config --get-all core.editor
For me,
export VISUAL=vim
solved the problem.

Answer 2

You can use the Git configuration option core.editor to set the editor of your liking, e.g., nano:
git config [--global] core.editor "nano"
You can also change this by editing the .gitconfig file in your home directory (global) or git repository (create it if it doesn't exist) if you don't have shell access:
...
[user]
name = Your Name
email = your#email.address
[core]
editor = nano
...

Answer 3

Check this command:
sudo update-alternatives --config editor

Answer 4

vim=/usr/bin/vim # Or wherever the Vim binary is
export EDITOR=vim
should do the job.

Answer 5

I don't have an EDITOR environmental variable. My .bashrc file does define this:
alias vi='vim'
And supposedly, if Vim can't find a file called .vimrc in your home directory, it runs in "compatibility mode" and you only get vi features until you say type :nocp.
If it is based on your EDITOR environmental variable, you would set it like this in Bash:
export EDITOR='vim'

Answer 6

Since things have changed in Mac OS X, you will have to add the following in the .profile file in the base directory of the user:
export EDITOR='vim'
You can follow the following instructions:
open the terminal
Type cd (hit Return or Enter (this will take you to the base directory))
Type echo "export EDITOR='vim'" >> .profile (hit Return or Enter and you are done)
(Restart the terminal)
=========================
Or just type:
echo "export EDITOR='vim'" >> ~/.profile
Hit Enter and restart.

Answer 7

If you want vi to be your default history editor (which is why I'm here):
Edit file ~/.bashrc and add
set -o vi
anywhere in the file. Then all the lovely vi command history is available (Esc + K, etc.).

Answer 8

Since none of these answers are helping me:
Here is what the Git documentation are saying, git-commit(1) Manual Page:
The editor used to edit the commit log
message will be chosen from the
GIT_EDITOR environment variable, the
core.editor configuration variable,
the VISUAL environment variable, or
the EDITOR environment variable (in
that order).
Here is the Bash man page excerpt on export (brackets are optional):
export [-fn] [name[=word]]

Answer 9

I had this same challenge when setting up my new MacBook Pro.
Here's how I solved it
To switch to your editor of choice (say nano) on a MacBook you will need to add the following lines to your ~/.zshrc file if your default shell is zsh or ~/.bash_profile if your default shell is bash:
export EDITOR=nano
export VISUAL="$EDITOR"
However, a simpler approach to do this will be to use the echo command to insert them into your ~/.zshrc file if your default shell is zsh:
echo 'export EDITOR=nano' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export VISUAL="$EDITOR"' >> ~/.zshrc
OR ~/.bashrc if your default shell is bash:
echo 'export EDITOR=nano' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export VISUAL="$EDITOR"' >> ~/.bash_profile
Run the command below to activate the new configuration:
source ~/.zshrc
Or
source ~/.bash_profile
If you need to switch to other editors of choice you can replace nano with your preferred editor:
Vim - vim
Vi - vi
That's all.