[LLVMdev] RFC: put commit messages in *-commits subject lines?

[Jordan Rose]

Hi, everyone. I was comparing our commit messages with another commit list I'm on, and I realized (not for the first time) that our subject lines are less than useful. Why don't we have the first line of our commit messages in the subject lines? Compare:

[cfe-commits] r167788 - in /cfe/trunk: lib/Analysis/CFG.cpp test/Analysis/dead-stores.cpp

with

[cfe-commits] r167788 - Fix bad CFG construction bug when handling C++ 'try' statements.

The first gives me just enough information (in my abbreviated mesage list window) to see that there was a change to Clang's Analysis library; if I look at the whole subject, I can see what files were changed (or the first few, at least). But the second actually tells me what changed, and whether or not it affects me.

Having this form will also encourage people to put a useful summary in the first line of their commit, which is useful for anyone viewing history (especially git users, where the one-line summary is very common).

Is there a reason we currently prefer files to log messages?
Jordan