Re: Odd instructions for Git?

[Claude Paroz <claude 2xlibre net>]

Le samedi 04 avril 2009 à 21:41 +0100, Simos a écrit :
> On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 8:27 PM, Tommi Vainikainen <tvainika gmail com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I was reading http://live.gnome.org/TranslationProject/GitHowTo and
> > noticed that it says "It is customary in Git to go for small commits; if
> > you have more than one file, commit them separately, with a descriptive
> > commit message for each commit. For example, if you edit the Makefile.am
> > file for DOC_LINGUAS or the LINGUAS file, it is good to commit the as"
> >
> > However for me this sounds like contradicting very basic rule of version
> > control usage that each commit should contain all logically relevant
> > changes together. For example when committing initial translation, I
> > think only sane solution is to commit first version of po file together
> > with Makefile/LINGUAS change, because those belong logically together.
> >
> > However now Wiki instructs to work in different way. Are we really
> > changing this kind of conventions to adhere some strange Git customs?
> 
> Considering that in git it will be OK to write one-line commit
> messages (ChangeLog file is not necessary),
> I think it is better to have
> 
> git commit Makefile.am -m "Added LL to DOC_LINGUAS"
> git commit LL.po -m "Added LL translation"
> git commit LL/figures/*.png -m "Added screenshots"
> 
> instead of
> 
> git commit Makefile.am LL.po LL/figures/*.png -m "Added LL to
> DOC_LINGUAS, added LL translation and screenshots"
> or even
> git commit -a -m "Added LL to DOC_LINGUAS, added LL translation and screenshots"
> 
> There is a limit for the commit message of 72 characters so that
> changelog summaries will appear neat.
> 
> These are my own suggestions and are open to debate.

No, commits should always contain all files containing logically related
modifications. Committing the Makefile.am modification without the
corresponding po has no sense. In your example, I would commit it as:
git commit Makefile.am LL.po LL/figures/*.png 
Then an editor will appear, and the commit message should contain one
short description line, and possibly a longer description on a second
paragraph:

Added LL help translation

LL added to DOC_LINGUAS, screenshots added in figures, ...

However, in this case I think the short description is enough. People
aren't stupid and they can easily figure out what happened and why files
has been added/modified through consulting the logs/diffs.

Claude