From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Michael Schubert Subject: Re: How to make devs write better commit messages Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:18:58 +0100 Message-ID: <4EDEA2E2.3030002@elegosoft.com> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: git@vger.kernel.org To: Joseph Huttner X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Wed Dec 07 00:30:45 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1RY4TF-0004kG-A3 for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:30:45 +0100 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754559Ab1LFXak (ORCPT ); Tue, 6 Dec 2011 18:30:40 -0500 Received: from mx0.elegosoft.com ([78.47.87.163]:53332 "EHLO mx0.elegosoft.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753825Ab1LFXaj (ORCPT ); Tue, 6 Dec 2011 18:30:39 -0500 X-Greylist: delayed 627 seconds by postgrey-1.27 at vger.kernel.org; Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:30:39 EST Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mx0.elegosoft.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id F02EADE883; Wed, 7 Dec 2011 00:20:10 +0100 (CET) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at mx0.elegosoft.com Received: from mx0.elegosoft.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (mx0.elegosoft.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id k3PIstWLb0u8; Wed, 7 Dec 2011 00:20:01 +0100 (CET) Received: from [192.168.1.101] (g231240206.adsl.alicedsl.de [92.231.240.206]) by mx0.elegosoft.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 05139DE7EA; Wed, 7 Dec 2011 00:20:00 +0100 (CET) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:8.0) Gecko/20111108 Thunderbird/8.0 In-Reply-To: Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On 12/06/2011 11:55 PM, Joseph Huttner wrote: > So I know that there is a somewhat standard format of commit messages > in Git, which Linus outlines here: > > https://github.com/torvalds/subsurface/blob/master/README#L164 > > Trouble is, when most people go to commit, the file that the editor > opens has no reminder of how to write a proper commit message. Often > I find myself having to go back through the commit log, or consulting > the above link. > > I propose two things: > > 1. An optional flag in the Git config that, if set, shows the format > of a typical commit message in your commit message template. > > 2. The ability to modify this commit message template. Many teams > use automated tools to read commit messages and then do automated > tasks based on that data, like comment an RT ticket. Thus, developers > need to be reminded of these team-specific settings as well. > > What are your thoughts? If it's no social issue but just due to lack of a reminder you could provide a template for commit.template. Either way: you still would have to force people to set it.?