Quick reference

Example of a good commit:

Gemfile.lock: Update nokogiri version // Commit Message

// Commit Description
This upgrades nokogiri version to 1.8.1
and hence other dependencies are updated too
This was done due to a potential security
vulnerability stated by GitHub

Gemfile.lock: Update nokogiri version: Describe the change in maximum of 50 characters.

This upgrades.. ..by GitHub: Describe the reasoning of your changes in maximum of 72 characters per line.

Update gem bundle // Commit Message

// Commit Description
Fixes the travis build

Update gem bundle: Describe the change in maximum of 50 characters.

Fixes the travis build: Describe the reasoning of your changes in maximum of 72 characters per line.

It is not always necessary to write a commit description, but the commit messages should follow the guide

This guide will further explain the way of writing commit messages. Writing nice commit messages is an essential part of contributing in open source. Always remember, Code is more often read than written!. Hence we need good quality codes and great commit messages just enables the developers to easily identify the working of each piece of code.

What Makes a Good Commit?

A good commit is atomic. It should describe one change and not more.

Why? Because we may create more bugs if we had more changes per commit.

How to Write Good Commits

A commit consists of 2 parts:

• commit message
• commit description

Example:

Gemfile.lock: Update nokogiri version // Commit Message

// Commit Description
This upgrades nokogiri version to 1.8.1
and hence other dependencies are updated too
This was done due to a potential security
vulnerability stated by GitHub

Commit Message

Example:

Gemfile.lock: Update nokogiri version

• Maximum of 50 characters.
  Keeping subject lines at this length ensures that they are readable, and explains the change in a concise way.
• Should describe the change - the action being done in the commit.

Commit Description

Example:

This upgrades nokogiri version to 1.8.1
and hence other dependencies are updated too
This was done due to a potential security
vulnerability stated by GitHub

• Maximum of 72 characters excluding newline for each line.
  The recommendation is to add a line break at 72 characters, so that Git has plenty of room to indent text while still keeping everything under 80 characters overall.
• Not mandatory - but helps explain what you’re doing.
• Should describe the reasoning for your changes. This is especially important for complex changes that are not self explanatory. This is also the right place to write about related bugs.

Editing Commit Messages

If you have previously made a commit and update it on a later date, it is advisable to also update the commit message accordingly.

In order to do this one can use the amend function as is described here.