1. Use the imperative mood in the subject line
Imperative mood just means “spoken or written as if giving a command or instruction”. A few examples:
- Clean your room
- Close the door
- Take out the trash
The imperative can sound a little rude; that’s why we don’t often use it. But it’s perfect for Git commit subject lines. One reason for this is that Git itself uses the imperative whenever it creates a commit on your behalf.
For example:
- Refactor subsystem X for readability
- Update getting started documentation
- Remove deprecated methods
- Release version 1.0.0
Writing this way can be a little awkward at first. We’re more used to speaking in an indicative mood, which is all about reporting facts.
That’s why commit messages often end up reading like this:
- Fixed bug with Y
- Changing behavior of X
And sometimes commit messages to get written as a description of their contents:
- More fixes for broken stuff
- Sweet new API methods
To remove any confusion, here’s a simple rule to get it right every time.
A properly formed Git commit subject line should always be able to complete the following sentence:
If applied, this commit will your subject line here
For example:
- If applied, this commit will refactor subsystem X for readability
- If applied, this commit will update getting started documentation
- If applied, this commit will remove deprecated methods
- If applied, this commit will release version 1.0.0
- If applied, this commit will merge pull request #123 from user/branch
Notice how this doesn’t work for the other non-imperative forms:
- If applied, this commit will fixed bug with Y
- If applied, this commit will changing behavior of X
- If applied, this commit will more fixes for broken stuff
- If applied, this commit will sweet new API methods
2. Limit the subject line to 50 characters
50 characters is not a hard limit, just a rule of thumb. Keeping subject lines at this length ensures that they are readable, and forces the author to think for a moment about the most concise way to explain what’s going on.
3. Capitalize the subject line
This is as simple as it sounds. Begin all subject lines with a capital letter.
For example:
- Accelerate to 88 miles per hour
Instead of:
- accelerate to 88 miles per hour
4. Do not end the subject line with a period
Trailing punctuation is unnecessary in subject lines. Besides, space is precious when you’re trying to keep them to 50 chars or less.
Example:
Instead of:
5. Use the body to explain what and why vs. how
This commit from Bitcoin Core is a great example of explaining what changed and why:
Sample Example
In most cases, you can leave out details about how a change has been made. Code is generally self-explanatory in this regard (and if the code is so complex that it needs to be explained in prose, that’s what source comments are for). Just focus on making clear the reasons why you made the change in the first place—the way things worked before the change (and what was wrong with that), the way they work now, and why you decided to solve it the way you did.
6. Wrap the body at 72 characters
Git never wraps text automatically. When you write the body of a commit message, you must mind its right margin, and wrap text manually.
The recommendation is to do this at 72 characters so that Git has plenty of room to indent text while still keeping everything under 80 characters overall.
In Summary,
- Separate subject from body with a blank line
- Do not end the subject line with a period
- Capitalize the subject line and each paragraph
- Use the imperative mood in the subject line
- Wrap lines at 72 characters
- Use the body to explain what and why you have done something. In most cases, you can leave out details about how a change has been made.
(Reference : https://cbea.ms/git-commit/)