diff --git a/mercurial/cmdutil.py b/mercurial/cmdutil.py
--- a/mercurial/cmdutil.py
+++ b/mercurial/cmdutil.py
@@ -2215,7 +2215,7 @@ def commitforceeditor(repo, ctx, subs, f
     # run editor in the repository root
     olddir = os.getcwd()
     os.chdir(repo.root)
-    text = repo.ui.edit(committext, ctx.user(), ctx.extra())
+    text = repo.ui.edit(committext, ctx.user(), ctx.extra(), editform=editform)
     text = re.sub("(?m)^HG:.*(\n|$)", "", text)
     os.chdir(olddir)
 
diff --git a/mercurial/help/config.txt b/mercurial/help/config.txt
--- a/mercurial/help/config.txt
+++ b/mercurial/help/config.txt
@@ -420,6 +420,10 @@ For example, ``changeset.tag.remove`` cu
 only for :hg:`tag --remove`, but ``changeset.tag`` customizes the
 commit message for :hg:`tag` regardless of ``--remove`` option.
 
+At the external editor invocation for committing, corresponding
+dot-separated list of names without ``changeset.`` prefix
+(e.g. ``commit.normal``) is in ``HGEDITFORM`` environment variable.
+
 In this section, items other than ``changeset`` can be referred from
 others. For example, the configuration to list committed files up
 below can be referred as ``{listupfiles}``::
diff --git a/mercurial/ui.py b/mercurial/ui.py
--- a/mercurial/ui.py
+++ b/mercurial/ui.py
@@ -728,7 +728,7 @@ class ui(object):
         if self.debugflag:
             opts['label'] = opts.get('label', '') + ' ui.debug'
             self.write(*msg, **opts)
-    def edit(self, text, user, extra={}):
+    def edit(self, text, user, extra={}, editform=None):
         (fd, name) = tempfile.mkstemp(prefix="hg-editor-", suffix=".txt",
                                       text=True)
         try:
@@ -743,6 +743,8 @@ class ui(object):
                 if label in extra:
                     environ.update({'HGREVISION': extra[label]})
                     break
+            if editform:
+                environ.update({'HGEDITFORM': editform})
 
             editor = self.geteditor()
 
diff --git a/tests/test-commit.t b/tests/test-commit.t
--- a/tests/test-commit.t
+++ b/tests/test-commit.t
@@ -4,7 +4,12 @@ commit date test
   $ cd test
   $ echo foo > foo
   $ hg add foo
-  $ HGEDITOR=true hg commit -m ""
+  $ cat > $TESTTMP/checkeditform.sh <<EOF
+  > env | grep HGEDITFORM
+  > true
+  > EOF
+  $ HGEDITOR="sh $TESTTMP/checkeditform.sh" hg commit -m ""
+  HGEDITFORM=commit.normal
   abort: empty commit message
   [255]
   $ hg commit -d '0 0' -m commit-1