RE: Is this a bug?

RE: Is this a bug?

[David Wade]

Hi,

I wrote a commit message beginning with a hash (#) character, like this: 'git commit -m "#ifdef ...." '

Everything went okay when committing, but then I tried 'git commit -amend' and without editing the commit message I was told I had an empty commit message.

Is this a problem with my text editor (vim 7.2) or git itself? (git version 1.7.2.2 under RedHat 5.8) Or something I'm not supposed to do ;-) ?

Thanks!

David Wade
Analyst, Seismic Imaging Development
ITC SUB RES
Statoil ASA

Mobile: +47 97572157
Email: dawad@statoil.com

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Re: Is this a bug?

[Andreas Ericsson]

On 02/19/2013 10:32 AM, David Wade wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I wrote a commit message beginning with a hash (#) character, like
> this: 'git commit -m "#ifdef ...." '
> 
> Everything went okay when committing, but then I tried 'git commit
> -amend' and without editing the commit message I was told I had an
> empty commit message.
> 
> Is this a problem with my text editor (vim 7.2) or git itself? (git
> version 1.7.2.2 under RedHat 5.8) Or something I'm not supposed to do
> ;-) ?
> 

Lines starting with a hash sign are considered comments by git commit.
If you fire it up without '-m' you'll see that git puts all its own
notes about the commit in commented-out lines.

While empty commit messages aren't really unacceptable by git's model,
they're considered "almost certainly user errors". I expect the -m
flag being present when running 'git commit' causes the check for empty
message to be skipped, which isn't the case when amending the commit.


Btw, when I write messages probably similar to the one you just did, I
tend to write:
  Use compat-layer __builtin_clz() #ifndef __GNUC__
precisely to avoid this issue. It also puts the imperative first,
which I find makes for smoother reading. Putting the condition first
screams for a comma and a slight stagger in reading flow, like so:
  Unless built with gcc, use compat-layer __builtin_clz()

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

Considering the successes of the wars on alcohol, poverty, drugs and
terror, I think we should give some serious thought to declaring war
on peace.

Re: Is this a bug?

[Erik Faye-Lund]

On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 10:32 AM, David Wade <DAWAD@statoil.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I wrote a commit message beginning with a hash (#) character, like this: 'git commit -m "#ifdef ...." '
>
> Everything went okay when committing, but then I tried 'git commit -amend' and without editing the commit message I was told I had an empty commit message.
>
> Is this a problem with my text editor (vim 7.2) or git itself? (git version 1.7.2.2 under RedHat 5.8) Or something I'm not supposed to do ;-) ?

The problem is that when doing interactive editing of messages (like
'git commit --amend' does), git considers '#' as a comment-character.
You can disable this by using the --cleanup=verbatim switch (or some
other suiting cleanup-setting, see 'git help commit').

Re: Is this a bug?

[Duy Nguyen]

On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 4:47 PM, Erik Faye-Lund <kusmabite@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 10:32 AM, David Wade <DAWAD@statoil.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I wrote a commit message beginning with a hash (#) character, like this: 'git commit -m "#ifdef ...." '
>>
>> Everything went okay when committing, but then I tried 'git commit -amend' and without editing the commit message I was told I had an empty commit message.
>>
>> Is this a problem with my text editor (vim 7.2) or git itself? (git version 1.7.2.2 under RedHat 5.8) Or something I'm not supposed to do ;-) ?
>
> The problem is that when doing interactive editing of messages (like
> 'git commit --amend' does), git considers '#' as a comment-character.
> You can disable this by using the --cleanup=verbatim switch (or some
> other suiting cleanup-setting, see 'git help commit').

Nobody is always conscious about the leading # in commit message to do
that. I once edited a commit message and the auto-wrap feature put '#'
at the beginning of the line. I saved and went on without noticing one
line was lost until much later :( Perhaps we should change the comment
signature a bit to reduce accidents, like only recognize '#' lines as
comments after a special line like

# this is not a comment
### START OF COMMENT ###
# this is a comment
-- 
Duy

Re: Is this a bug?

[Phil Hord]

On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 6:02 AM, Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 4:47 PM, Erik Faye-Lund <kusmabite@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 10:32 AM, David Wade <DAWAD@statoil.com> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I wrote a commit message beginning with a hash (#) character, like this: 'git commit -m "#ifdef ...." '
>>>
>>> Everything went okay when committing, but then I tried 'git commit -amend' and without editing the commit message I was told I had an empty commit message.
>>>
>>> Is this a problem with my text editor (vim 7.2) or git itself? (git version 1.7.2.2 under RedHat 5.8) Or something I'm not supposed to do ;-) ?
>>
>> The problem is that when doing interactive editing of messages (like
>> 'git commit --amend' does), git considers '#' as a comment-character.
>> You can disable this by using the --cleanup=verbatim switch (or some
>> other suiting cleanup-setting, see 'git help commit').
>
> Nobody is always conscious about the leading # in commit message to do
> that. I once edited a commit message and the auto-wrap feature put '#'
> at the beginning of the line. I saved and went on without noticing one
> line was lost until much later :( Perhaps we should change the comment
> signature a bit to reduce accidents, like only recognize '#' lines as
> comments after a special line like
>
> # this is not a comment
> ### START OF COMMENT ###
> # this is a comment

Or maybe --amend should imply --cleanup=whitespace.
--
Phil

Re: Is this a bug?

[Junio C Hamano]

Phil Hord <phil.hord@gmail.com> writes:

> Or maybe --amend should imply --cleanup=whitespace.

I am fairly negative on that.

Such a hidden linkage, even if it is documented, is just one more
thing people need to learn.

It _might_ be interesting (note: I did not say "worthwhile" here) to
think what happens if we scanned the message (either coming from the
commit being amended, -F file option, or -m message option), picked
a punctuation character that does not appear at the beginning of the
lines in it, and automatically adjusted core.commentchar if '#'
appears at the beginning of one of the lines, though.