Commit messages conventions
Commit Message Guidelines#
We have very precise rules over how our git commit messages can be formatted. This leads to more readable messages that are easy to follow when looking through the project history. But also, we use the git commit messages to generate the erxes change log.
We use Angular convention preset.
Commit Message Format#
A commit message consists of a header, body and footer. The header has a type, scope and subject:
The header is mandatory and the scope of the header is optional.
The footer should contain a closing reference to an issue if any.
Revert#
If the commit reverts a previous commit, it should begin with revert:, followed by the header of the reverted commit. In the body it should say: This reverts commit <hash>., where the hash is the SHA of the commit being reverted.
Type#
Must be one of the following:
- feat: A new feature
- fix: A bug fix
- perf: A code change that improves performance
- refactor: A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature
- style: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white-space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc)
- test: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests
If the prefix is feat, fix or perf, it will appear in the changelog. However if there is any BREAKING CHANGE, the commit will always appear in the changelog.
Scope#
The scope could be anything specifying place of the commit change. For example deal, inbox, etc...
Subject#
The subject contains succinct description of the change:
- use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes"
- don't capitalize first letter
- no dot (.) at the end
Body#
Just as in the subject, use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes". The body should include the motivation for the change and contrast this with previous behavior.
Footer#
The footer should contain any information about Breaking Changes and is also the place to reference GitHub issues that this commit Closes.
Breaking Changes should start with the word BREAKING CHANGE: with a space or two newlines. The rest of the commit message is then used for this.
Examples#
Appears under "Features" header, inbox subheader:
Appears under "Bug Fixes" header, graphite subheader, with a link to issue #28:
Appears under "Performance Improvements" header, and under "Breaking Changes" with the breaking change explanation:
The following commit 667ecc1 do not appear in the changelog if they are under the same release. If not, the revert commit appears under the "Reverts" header.