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Russ Cox edited this page Mar 11, 2020 · 34 revisions

Commit messages

Commit messages, also known as CL (changelist) descriptions, should be formatted per https://tip.golang.org/doc/contribute.html#commit_messages . For example,

net/http: frob the quux before blarfing

[longer description here in the body]

Fixes #nnnn

Notably, for the subject (the first line of description):

  • the name of the package affected by the change goes before the colon
  • the part after the colon uses the verb tense + phrase that completes the blank in, "This change modifies Go to ___________"
  • the verb after the colon is lowercase
  • there is no trailing period
  • it should be kept as short as possible (many git viewing tools prefer under ~76 characters, though Go isn't super strict about this).

For the body (the rest of the description):

  • the text should be wrapped to ~76 characters (to appease git viewing tools, mainly), unless you really need longer lines (e.g. for ASCII art, tables, or long links)
  • the Fixes/Updates line goes after the body with a blank newline separating the two
  • there is no Markdown in the commit message
  • we do not use Signed-off-by lines. Don't add them. Our Gerrit server & GitHub bots enforce CLA compliance instead.
  • when referencing CLs, prefer saying "CL nnn" or using a golang.org/cl/nnn shortlink over a direct Gerrit URL, since that's more future-proof.
  • when moving code between repos, include the CL, repository name, and git hash that it was moved from/to, so it is easier to trace history/blame.

If it's not a complete fix and more is coming, use:

For #nnnn

instead of Fixes. Don't use the other GitHub-supported verbs.

Other repos

For non-"go" repos ("crypto", "tools", "net", etc), the subject is still the name of the package, but you need to fully-qualify the issue number with the GitHub org/repo syntax:

cipher/rot13: add new super secure cipher

Fixes golang/go#1234

Notably, the first line subject should not contain the x/crypto/ prefix. We only do that for the issue tracker.

Non-normative references

GitHub Pull Requests

If you're using GitHub Pull Requests, your commit message is constructed by GerritBot based on your PR's title & description. See https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/GerritBot#how-does-gerritbot-determine-the-final-commit-message

If somebody asks you to modify your commit message, you'll need to modify your PR.

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