Choose Your Commit Messages Properly
DZone's Guide to
Choose Your Commit Messages Properly
Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.
Join For FreeGet the Edge with a Professional Java IDE. 30-day free trial.
I already wrote
a couple
of
posts about version control stuff and best practices related with it. So today, what about proper commit messages?
How often did you take a look at the history of some file/folder?? It's just the best backup system you could have and that's one of the main purposes of a VCS (forget about branching, merging etc for a while
). And if you did look at your commit messages, were they meaningful?? Did they make any sense to you?? So often they don't, right? Messages like...
- method 'SomeMethodInAClass' modified
- production-build
- added some files
- fixed some bugs
- ...
...they just don't say anything, right?? You have to open some kind of comparison editor and directly look at
what actually changed.
Now assume you're currently searching for an issue you're having related to the reading of some entities...I bet this message would jump on your eyes immediately!
Instead...
When looking at the 1st sample comment "method 'SomeMethodInAClass' modified", what would you think about this comment as a (more expressive) alternative:
Bugfix: changed LINQ query to return all entities EXCEPT the current one
Now assume you're currently searching for an issue you're having related to the reading of some entities...I bet this message would jump on your eyes immediately!
So..
..the history excerpt from your VCS should nearly be something that you could directly copy and paste as a public version history on your webpage.Get the Java IDE that understands code & makes developing enjoyable. Level up your code with IntelliJ IDEA. Download the free trial.
Like This Article? Read More From DZone
Topics:
Published at DZone with permission of Juri Strumpflohner . See the original article here.
Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.
{{ parent.title || parent.header.title}}
{{ parent.tldr }}
{{ parent.linkDescription }}
{{ parent.urlSource.name }}