What is the use of commit messages?

Posted by eteubert on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by eteubert
Published on 2010-05-10T21:47:30Z Indexed on 2010/05/10 21:54 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 175

Filed under:

version-control

|

commit-message

Hi folks,

I struggled asking that question but here it is. I am using source control since several years for multiple projects using different systems (svn, hg, git) and I learned how to improve my messages by following guidelines etc. But as far as I can remember I never ever had a look at them afterwards.

So ... how do you profit from your own commit messages? When I need to go back because I smashed something and need a fresh start, I usually just go back to the latest "node" (where I started or merged a branch). Do I write those messages just for people monitoring the project who are curious what is going on?

Regards

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about version-control

In the context of the TFS version control SDK (Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl), what exactl

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
In the context of the TFS version control SDK (Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl), what exactly is deletionID? It is a property of Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Client.Item. It is also a parameter to some of the query methods on Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Client. I'm… >>> More
What are the advantages of version control systems that version each file separately?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Over the past few years I have worked with several different version control systems. For me, one of the fundamental differences between them has been whether they version files individually (each file has its own separate version numbering and history) or the repository as a whole (a "commit" or… >>> More
What are the advantages of version control systems that version each file separately?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Over the past few years I have worked with several different version control systems. For me, one of the fundamental differences between them has been whether they version files individually (each file has its own separate version numbering and history) or the repository as a whole (a "commit" or… >>> More
R and version control for the solo data analyst

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Many data analysts that I respect use version control. For example: http://github.com/hadley/ See comments on http://permut.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/revision-control-statistics-bleg/ However, I'm evaluating whether adopting a version control system such as git would be worthwhile. A brief overview: I'm… >>> More
What version control tool can generate this header

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
This is from a sql script. What tool can generate this? Thanks --USE [MY_TABLE] GO /****** Object: StoredProcedure [dbo].[adminIncExp] Script Date: 03/05/2010 09:14:12 ******/ SET ANSI_NULLS ON GO SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON GO -- ============================================= -- Author: … >>> More

Related posts about commit-message

Use linefeed or carriage return in Subversion commit message from the command line

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am using Subversion 1.6.6 on Ubuntu 10.04. I would like to insert a carriage return, or linefeed, or newline into my commit message so that when reading the log, the comments are formatted appropriately. It works fine when I use the system editor, or specify a file for the commit comment, but what… >>> More
egg git interface for emacs, commit message empty

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm using egg (emacs got git) as git interface in emacs. Whenever I try to achieve a commit --amend, I receive a "GIT-COMMIT-AMEND> Aborting commit due to empty commit message". This is what i do: C-u C-x v c Then the commit buffer appears, with the message of my previous commit. Then upon… >>> More
Updating Commit Message in Mercurial MQ extension

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
After using hg qnew and hg qrefresh to create and update a patch that I want to apply to my repository, but the commit message that I wrote when I did hg qnew was not very good, it did not reference the ticket number from trac, and I would like to say something in it about some of the issues that… >>> More
Pre-fill SVN commit message with guideline

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I would like to show guidelines to commiter independently of the subversion client used. Do you know how to do that? >>> More
Start a git commit message with a hashmark (#)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Git treats lines starting with # as comment lines when committing. this is very annoying when working with a ticket tracking system, and trying to write the ticket number at the beginning of the line, e.g. #123 salt hashed passwords git will simply remove the line from the commit message. is there… >>> More