git commit message convention¶

structure¶

<summary>
<empty line>
<description>
<empty line; if meta content exists>
<meta>

key points¶

• The summary has a suggested limit of fifty (50) characters.

• Promotes small/description message.

• Fits in Git shortlogs, gitk, etc.

• The summary has a strenuously suggested limit of twenty-two (72) characters.

• Fits with eighty (80) character terminals; considering some common usage for a four (4) character pre-fix tab for showing logs (and leaving four (4) character space at the end of each line).

• The summary is suggested to be in lower case.

• Clean and consistent casing for descriptions.

• The summary is suggested to not end with a period.

• Treat as a title.

• The description has a suggested limit of twenty-two (72) characters on a single line.

• Same reason as the summary; however, there are proper use cases for lines exceeding this limit. For example, complete URLs, and output dump or more.

common meta usages (but not limited to)¶

Signed-off-by:
Acked-by:
Tested-by:
Reviewed-by:
Suggested-by:
Bug-identified-by:
Review-identified-by:

examples¶

• Kernel.org

• libdrm

• systemd

• Wayland