fix: render tabs in commit messages as spaces

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 * crash when opening submodule ([#2895](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/2895))
 * when staging the last file in a directory, the first item after the directory is no longer skipped [[@Tillerino](https://github.com/Tillerino)] ([#2748](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/2748))
 * index-out-of-bounds panic when unstaging lines near the end of a diff ([#2953](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/2953))
+* tabs in commit messages are rendered as spaces instead of being dropped or garbling the commit list and details view [[@costajohnt](https://github.com/costajohnt)] ([#3036](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/3036))
 
 ## [0.28.1] - 2026-03-21
 

src/components/commit_details/compare_details.rs

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ use crate::{
 		CommandBlocking, CommandInfo, Component, DrawableComponent,
 		EventState,
 	},
+	string_utils::tabs_to_spaces,
 	strings::{self},
 	ui::style::SharedTheme,
 };
@@ -88,7 +89,9 @@ impl CompareDetailsComponent {
 				Cow::from(
 					data.message
 						.as_ref()
-						.map(|msg| msg.subject.clone())
+						.map(|msg| {
+							tabs_to_spaces(msg.subject.clone())
+						})
 						.unwrap_or_default(),
 				),
 				self.theme.text(true, false),

src/components/commit_details/details.rs

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ use crate::{
 		EventState, ScrollType,
 	},
 	keys::{key_match, SharedKeyConfig},
+	string_utils::tabs_to_spaces,
 	strings::{self, order},
 	ui::style::SharedTheme,
 };
@@ -81,15 +82,17 @@ impl DetailsComponent {
 		width: usize,
 	) -> WrappedCommitMessage<'_> {
 		let width = width.max(1);
-		let wrapped_title = bwrap::wrap!(&message.subject, width)
+		let subject = tabs_to_spaces(message.subject.clone());
+		let wrapped_title = bwrap::wrap!(&subject, width)
 			.lines()
 			.map(String::from)
 			.map(Cow::from)
 			.collect();
 
 		if let Some(ref body) = message.body {
+			let body = tabs_to_spaces(body.clone());
 			let wrapped_message: Vec<Cow<'_, str>> =
-				bwrap::wrap!(body, width)
+				bwrap::wrap!(&body, width)
 					.lines()
 					.map(String::from)
 					.map(Cow::from)
@@ -486,6 +489,16 @@ mod tests {
 			]
 		);
 	}
+
+	#[test]
+	fn test_textwrap_tabs() {
+		let message = CommitMessage::from("subj\tx\n\nPR:\t123");
+
+		assert_eq!(
+			get_wrapped_lines(&message, 50),
+			vec!["subj  x", "", "PR:  123"]
+		);
+	}
 }
 
 #[cfg(test)]

src/components/revision_files.rs

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ use crate::{
 	keys::{key_match, SharedKeyConfig},
 	popups::{BlameFileOpen, FileRevOpen},
 	queue::{InternalEvent, Queue, StackablePopupOpen},
+	string_utils::tabs_to_spaces,
 	strings::{self, order, symbol},
 	try_or_popup,
 	ui::{self, common_nav, style::SharedTheme},
@@ -357,7 +358,10 @@ impl RevisionFilesComponent {
 			let _ignore =
 				write!(title, " {{{}}}", c.id.get_short_string());
 
-			c.message.lines().next()
+			c.message
+				.lines()
+				.next()
+				.map(|m| tabs_to_spaces(m.to_string()))
 		});
 
 		if let Some(message) = message {

src/components/utils/logitems.rs

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+use crate::string_utils::tabs_to_spaces;
 use asyncgit::sync::{CommitId, CommitInfo};
 use chrono::{DateTime, Duration, Local, Utc};
 use indexmap::IndexSet;
@@ -41,7 +42,7 @@ impl From<CommitInfo> for LogEntry {
 		};
 
 		let author = c.author;
-		let msg = c.message;
+		let msg = tabs_to_spaces(c.message);
 
 		// Replace markdown emojis with Unicode equivalent
 		#[cfg(feature = "ghemoji")]