Re: empty ident name trashes commit message

If I forget to set user.email and user.name config options and do a commit (possibly the --amend option also required to make this show up), then git 1.7.11.2 will drops me into an editor for a commit message, then after that complain with the fatal message:

   *** Please tell me who you are.

   Run

     git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
     git config --global user.name "Your Name"

   to set your account's default identity.
   Omit --global to set the identity only in this repository.

   fatal: empty ident name (for <ramana.kumar@gmail.com>) not allowed

The commit message I wrote is now lost. This is bad behaviour - the error should happen before one writes the commit message, or the message should be saved somewhere.