Re: git commit messages

[Behdad Esfahbod <behdad behdad org>]

On 04/22/2009 10:46 AM, Vincent Untz wrote:

> I'd like to suggest that this is the default recommendation for GNOME
> modules, since having some common guidelines will make the life easier
> for most people. If some maintainers disagree, they can of course ask
> for something else in their modules.

+1.

> We can copy&  paste it to http://live.gnome.org/Git/CommitMessages if
> people agree.

Yes please.

> Opinions?

I also like to mention that one-liners are also acceptable if the change is 
really self-explanatory.  Like, say "Fix leak".  There's not much more to say.

Another option I like to document if we can agree on is prefixing the 
short-summary with a tag, like for example:

  "[layout] Improve X or Y"

Others suggested:

  "layout: Improve X or Y"

I prefer the former as it's visually more pleasing to me AND visually easier 
to recognize the tag in git-shortlog output.


In another mail you wrote:

> Frédéric (fredp) is suggesting to also propose a standard scheme to
> reference bugs that are fixed by a commit (so we can script things if
> it's needed one day -- that's similar to what Debian does).
>
> Something like "Closes: #123456" or "Fixes: #123456".

> This should probably live in the longer explanation since the short
> explanation is limited in size...

I don't quite like something like this.  I use the much more verbose version 
in my commits.  In fact, sometimes I use the bug title like as my short 
summary.  Like:


commit 2fc08eeb9daeabd9fbac1e8ae409581117601bb5
Author: Behdad Esfahbod <behdad behdad org>
Date:   Thu Apr 9 13:30:26 2009 -0400

    Bug 577952 – Error loading {GDEF,GSUB,GPOS} table 0x6EAD

    Detect TrueType Collections by checking the font data header instead
    of checking for "face->num_faces >1".


If I need to, I change the bug title first to make it accurate.


> (Then we can also reference other bug trackers when needed: bnc#12345,
> rh#12345, lp#12345, etc.)

Why so cryptic if it's on the long description?  I write "Red Hat Bug #12345".
I don't know what bnc is for example.


> Vincent

behdad