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

[David Blaikie]

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 2:20 PM, Jordan Rose <jordan_rose at apple.com> wrote:
> 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).

Also, having this format would mean we would be less likely to go over
the subject character limit that causes gmail to truncate subjects &
break threading...

So for both/all those reasons, I'd love this.

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