In order to make Bazaar log messages readable in the future, I would ask all
committers to follow the style advice given below when writing commit messages
(some of these were new to me too).
Thanks,
- Andrew
Summary line and revision text
------------------------------
Bazaar, like all other modern VCS tools, uses the first line of the commit
message as the summary which appears in email Subject: lines, the --line
output to bzr log, etc. So a descriptive yet concise first line is important.
For really trivial fixes, that single line as patch name is sufficient; but
for more comprehensive patches please add a long comment (ie the subject line
plus some prose describing what you’re up to. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
Put a single blank line between your summary line and the paragraphs you write
as the main descriptive text of the revision comment.
Remember that years from now someone will do bzr log filename and all the
revisions which affected that one file will show. So if you can, try to keep
commits on-topic; you don’t have to mention every last little change but try
your best to summarize the impact on major files if they’re somewhat
tangential to the main thrust of the rest of the commit.
Max message width 70 characters!
--------------------------------
Most text editors word wrap by default at the width of your terminal window,
often 80 characters. This becomes a problem when viewing commit messages
because VCS tools typically indent the message by a few whitespace characters,
and in some cases clip lines at the terminal width when viewing commit logs.
If you don't word wrap at all it looks even worse, and viewing the commit on
launchpad will result in an illegible very wide window.
Therefore, lines in commit messages must be word wrapped using hard returns at
70 characters.
Set your user id!
-----------------
If you make a commit to a local branch before you've told Bazaar what your
name and email address is, it will make a guess and record that in the commit,
and from then on that user id will be forever associated with that commit when
it later gets merged into Base. Use 'bzr whoami' or set the BZR_EMAIL
environment variable.
