dev@glassfish.java.net

Re: Writing good commit comments

From: Richard S. Hall <heavy_at_ungoverned.org>
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:54:26 -0500

On 1/12/11 13:51, Chris Kasso wrote:
> Folks,
>
> A quick note that we need to do a better job writing commit comments.
> Commit comments are used in many ways by many people including by other
> developers who are trying to track down the source of a new bug.
>
> While including the issue number is useful for historical purposes that
> level of indirection is not helpful when we run:
>
> svn log -r NNNNN:MMMMM
>
> and try to scan for a particular change or see the commit via
> commits_at_glassfish.java.net.
>
> In your commit comments please include:
>
> * What you fixed, added or removed (make it clear why the change was made)
> * The bug/issue number

Additionally, JIRA has the ability (or at least JIRA at Apache) to
capture the svn commit messages and associate them with the JIRA issue
if you mention the issue number, which is really nice. See this issue
for an example:

     https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FELIX-2749

Click on the "Subversion Commits" link above the comments to see the
associated commits for this issue. This is one of my favorite features.

-> richard

> * Extra credit: any other information you feel is useful (e.g. how it
> was fixed, testing done, what's left to do, concerns, etc)
> * Approver and Reviewer - during the 3.1 Change Control period you must
> indicate who approved the change and who reviewed the code.
>
> There is lots of info out there on the subject:
>
> http://lmgtfy.com/?q=proper+commit+comments
>
> Thanks.
> Chris