My Message on Commit Messages

Building and maintaining software is a collaborative effort and version control systems play a core role in supporting people in this. With this talk I want to raise awareness for the importance of commit messages, invite people to embrace them as communication tools and give some ideas on how to approach them and develop the respective mindset for writing useful commit messages.

The talk was given at RUG::B 01/2018

Transcript

1. COMMIT MESSAGES
   MY MESSAGE ON
   

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2. max
   @klappradla
   

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3. - DISCLAIMER -
   OPINIONS
   

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4. GIT
   

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5. Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with
   an unusually rich command set that provides both high-level
   operations and full access to internals.
   - git man page -
   

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6. WHY GIT?
   

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7. COLLABORATION
   AND
   COMMUNICATION
   

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8. A “commit” is a snapshot of your files.
   - jake boxer • github -
   

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9. Stores the current contents of the index in
   a new commit along with a log message
   from the user describing the changes.
   - git man page | git commit -
   

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10. COMMIT MESSAGE
    

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11. CASE:
    INFORMATION MISSING
    

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12. CASE:

    INFORMATION HUNT
    

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13. A MINDSET FOR
    COMMIT MESSAGES
    

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14. COMMUNICATION IS KEY
    

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15. CONTEXT FOR
    YOU•OTHERS•FUTURE YOU
    

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16. DIFF -> WHAT
    MESSAGE -> WHY
    

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17. e8d3db2 fix
    

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18. READ VS. WRITE
    COMMUNITY VS. AUTHOR
    

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19. MAKE OTHERS’
    LIVES EASIER
    

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20. CONTENT OF A
    COMMIT MESSAGE
    

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21. WHY IS THE CHANGE
    NECESSARY?
    

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22. HOW DOES THIS
    ADDRES THE ISSUE?
    

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23. WHAT ARE THE
    SIDE EFFECTS
    OF THIS CHANGE?
    

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24. COMMIT MESSAGES
    AS A
    COMMUNICATION TOOL
    

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25. THANX!
    YOU-IN-TWO-WEEKS
    FUTURE DEVELOPERS
    

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26. GUIDELINES FOR
    COMMIT MESSAGE
    

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27. SUBJECT
    BODY
    

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28. The subject/body distinction may
    seem unimportant but it’s one of
    many subtle factors that makes Git
    history so much more pleasant to
    work with than Subversion.
    - tpope -
    

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29. The subject line is used all over Git,
    oftentimes in truncated form if too long
    of a message was used
    - tpope -
    

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30. SUBJECT
    

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31. “IF APPLIED, THIS COMMIT
    WILL ”
    

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32. git commit -m …
    

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34. commit.style
    BODY
    

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35. .gitmessage
    

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37. TICKET AS SUBJECT:
    LOOK-ELSEWHERE-PROBLEM
    

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38. MERGE STRATEGIES
    

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39. THINK ABOUT
    COMMIT MESSAGES
    git commit -m …
    

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