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Subject: Re: A commit message template?

Re: A commit message template?

From: Thomas Martitz <thomas.martitz_at_student.htw-berlin.de>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:47:50 +0200

Am 15.09.2010 19:18, schrieb Daniel Stenberg:
> On Tue, 14 Sep 2010, Dominik Riebeling wrote:
>
> (I changed subject since I try to change the direction of the
> discussion a bit here.)
>
>> I don't know if it's just me but at least *I* would really appreciate
>> descriptive commit messages since it allows one to more easily follow
>> development.
>
> We've been discussing commit "templates" and how to do this before, so
> I've given this some thoughts again during this thread and I suggest
> we start using a simple but slightly defined system that's similar to
> what the git people do:
>
> --- start ---
> [area]: [short oneline description]
>
> [longish description wrapped at 72 columns that explain why and
> possibly how the change is done]
> --- end ---
>
> I would also encourge the use a few "magic words" in the long
> description for easier reference:
>
> Reported by: [reporter]
> Bug: [URL/reference to the bug being fixed/addressed]
> Written by: [author] (due to lack of git's --author)
>
> The rationale for the magic words is of course to allow easier
> extraction afterwards. Like when you want to figure out who's done a
> lot of patches, or which bugs that were fixed within a given interval
> etc. We can of course extend them over time, or just not use the ones
> that we don't find use for.
>
> Example commit message:
> ---- start ----
> backlight e200v1: toggle the correct GPIO
>
> When the moon goes out of phase, it turns out that the memory
> map gets reversed and we take a random entrophy to make it right
> again.
>
> Reported by: Buggy the Bugreporter
> Bug: http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/9763
> Written by: Hacker John Doe
> --- end ---
>
> The most simple commit message in this system uses only the first
> short description and nothing else.
>

I really like the suggestion, but it would be hugely annoying for the
"fix red" or "fix typo in comment" kind of changes which is the topic
we're discussing, especially seeing that people are even too lazy for
"fix red" and just do "grumble" instead.

For actual commits (i.e. those which have an actual change) I think your
proposed template would be very nice.

Best regards.
Received on 2010-09-15

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