- the first line of the commit message should be a short
description (50 characters is the soft limit, see DISCUSSION
in git-commit(1)), and should skip the full stop
+ - it is also conventional in most cases to prefix the
+ first line with "area: " where the area is a filename
+ or identifier for the general area of the code being
+ modified, e.g.
+ . archive: ustar header checksum is computed unsigned
+ . git-cherry-pick.txt: clarify the use of revision range notation
+ (if in doubt which identifier to use, run "git log --no-merges"
+ on the files you are modifying to see the current conventions)
- the body should provide a meaningful commit message, which:
. explains the problem the change tries to solve, iow, what
is wrong with the current code without the change.
run git diff --check on your changes before you commit.
-(1a) Try to be nice to older C compilers
-
-We try to support a wide range of C compilers to compile
-git with. That means that you should not use C99 initializers, even
-if a lot of compilers grok it.
-
-Also, variables have to be declared at the beginning of the block
-(you can check this with gcc, using the -Wdeclaration-after-statement
-option).
-
-Another thing: NULL pointers shall be written as NULL, not as 0.
-
-
(2) Generate your patch using git tools out of your commits.
-git based diff tools (git, Cogito, and StGIT included) generate
-unidiff which is the preferred format.
+git based diff tools generate unidiff which is the preferred format.
You do not have to be afraid to use -M option to "git diff" or
"git format-patch", if your patch involves file renames. The
it.
-Thunderbird
------------
+Thunderbird, KMail, GMail
+-------------------------
See the MUA-SPECIFIC HINTS section of git-format-patch(1).
whitespaces (fatal in patches). Running 'C-u g' to display the
message in raw form before using '|' to run the pipe can work
this problem around.
-
-
-KMail
------
-
-This should help you to submit patches inline using KMail.
-
-1) Prepare the patch as a text file.
-
-2) Click on New Mail.
-
-3) Go under "Options" in the Composer window and be sure that
-"Word wrap" is not set.
-
-4) Use Message -> Insert file... and insert the patch.
-
-5) Back in the compose window: add whatever other text you wish to the
-message, complete the addressing and subject fields, and press send.
-
-
-Gmail
------
-
-GMail does not appear to have any way to turn off line wrapping in the web
-interface, so this will mangle any emails that you send. You can however
-use "git send-email" and send your patches through the GMail SMTP server, or
-use any IMAP email client to connect to the google IMAP server and forward
-the emails through that.
-
-To use "git send-email" and send your patches through the GMail SMTP server,
-edit ~/.gitconfig to specify your account settings:
-
-[sendemail]
- smtpencryption = tls
- smtpserver = smtp.gmail.com
- smtpuser = user@gmail.com
- smtppass = p4ssw0rd
- smtpserverport = 587
-
-Once your commits are ready to be sent to the mailing list, run the
-following commands:
-
- $ git format-patch --cover-letter -M origin/master -o outgoing/
- $ edit outgoing/0000-*
- $ git send-email outgoing/*
-
-To submit using the IMAP interface, first, edit your ~/.gitconfig to specify your
-account settings:
-
-[imap]
- folder = "[Gmail]/Drafts"
- host = imaps://imap.gmail.com
- user = user@gmail.com
- pass = p4ssw0rd
- port = 993
- sslverify = false
-
-You might need to instead use: folder = "[Google Mail]/Drafts" if you get an error
-that the "Folder doesn't exist".
-
-Once your commits are ready to be sent to the mailing list, run the
-following commands:
-
- $ git format-patch --cover-letter -M --stdout origin/master | git imap-send
-
-Just make sure to disable line wrapping in the email client (GMail web
-interface will line wrap no matter what, so you need to use a real
-IMAP client).