svn: Could not use external editor to fetch log message

If you get this message when trying to do something in SubVersion, like a “svn commit”

svn: Commit failed (details follow):
svn: Could not use external editor to fetch log message; consider setting the $SVN_EDITOR environment variable or using the --message (-m) or --file (-F) options
svn: None of the environment variables SVN_EDITOR, VISUAL or EDITOR is set, and no 'editor-cmd' run-time configuration option was found

All you need to do is set the environment variable in your .bash_profile. To do this, enter the following command in Terminal:

vim ~/.bash_profile

Press ‘a’ to go into INSERT mode and type in the following:

export SVN_EDITOR="/usr/bin/vim"

You can change the path to the editor of your preference, I’m just used to using vim

Check your changes by reloading Terminal and printing the SVN_EDITOR environment variable to screen

AntPro-2:~ antbrown$ echo $SVN_EDITOR
/usr/bin/vim

Now when you do something like “svn commit” without any arguments it will load up vim so you can type your log message, when you’re finished type “:wq” to save and quit the editor.

Easy as pie