A commit message should have:
- The GitTrac ticket number, in the form #123. Note that you cannot have a "#" at the start of a line; Git will think it's a comment. Common techniques include putting the comment at the end of the line, or enclosing it in parenthesis like (#123), or putting it in a gliss. If multiple tickets are involved, feel free to list them all. If zero tickets are involved, consider creating a ticket so people have a place to discuss the change and a convenient place to point to for all relevant information.
- Why? This number makes correlating the version history easier (assuming you include the ticket number in a comment in the version history like you should). It also means that the ticket can include links to the relevant commits.
- A brief description of what you changed.
- Optionally, some extended discussion on what you changed, if you think it useful.
- Remember to update the Version History!. If you are confident that this change should not be mentioned in the version history, include a brief note explaining why - for instance, is it entirely invisible to the user (internal cleanup) or does it fix a bug that was never released?
- When you are ready to push your changes back to the central repo via git push, be certain to read and follow our GitPushChecklist