Okay, I need some help here. I’ve stumbled into this weird issue with Git that’s driving me nuts. Every time I try to execute the command `git help`, instead of getting the help text right in my terminal like I expect, it opens up this HTML page in my code editor. Like, what even? It’s super frustrating because I just want to quickly glance at some Git commands without having to switch back and forth between my terminal and the browser.
I thought it was just a one-time glitch, so I tried closing my code editor and running the command again. But nope, same thing happened. At this point, I’m wondering if I accidentally changed some settings or if there’s some misconfiguration going on. I’m using Visual Studio Code as my editor, and while I generally love it for coding, this issue is just annoying.
I’ve checked my terminal settings and the way Git is configured, but I’m not really a Git expert, so maybe I missed something obvious. When I run other commands in Git, everything works just fine; it’s just this help command that’s causing all the trouble. Another thing I noticed is that when I use commands like `git –version`, that works perfectly as well. So it feels like it’s just `git help` that’s acting out.
Has anyone else run into this? If so, what did you do to fix it? I’ve tried searching online, but I couldn’t find much that talks about this specific problem. I’m all ears for any tips or suggestions, no matter how small. It feels kind of ridiculous to be stuck on something that seems like it should be super straightforward. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Sounds like you’re dealing with a quirky Git config issue! When `git help` is opening up in your editor instead of the terminal, there’s a good chance it’s set to display help in a different way.
Here’s a couple of things you can check:
Run this command in your terminal:
git config --get help.viewerIf it outputs something, that’s probably what’s causing it. If you want to go back to the default terminal help, you can unset it with:
git config --unset help.viewerSometimes, the terminal type could affect how Git displays help. You might want to check your terminal settings to see if something’s off.
If you’re using the integrated terminal in VS Code, try opening a regular terminal (like Command Prompt, PowerShell, or even Git Bash) and see if it behaves the same way.
Hopefully, one of these tweaks gets your `git help` back to normal! It’s super frustrating when something like this pops up, especially when you just want to get work done. Good luck!
The issue you’re encountering with the `git help` command opening in your code editor instead of displaying in the terminal is likely related to the configuration of your Git installation. By default, Git uses a pager to display help information, which might have been inadvertently set to open in Visual Studio Code. To resolve this, you can check the configuration by running the following command in your terminal:
git config --global core.pager. If it returns a path to Visual Studio Code or any indication of it being set to open in an editor, you’ll want to change it back to the default pager (which is often less confusing for terminal use). You can set it to use the default Git pager (usually less) by executing:git config --global core.pager less.If the problem persists, you may want to check the
GIT_PAGERenvironment variable. To confirm if it’s set and what it’s pointing to, runecho $GIT_PAGER. If it shows a value that directs it to Visual Studio Code, you can unset it by runningunset GIT_PAGERin your terminal session. Additionally, you might check your shell configuration files (like .bashrc or .zshrc) for any lines that permanently set this variable, so you can remove or comment them out. Once you’ve made these changes, try runninggit helpagain, and it should display the help text in your terminal as expected.