llvm dev - Nov 2012 - [LLVMdev] RFC: put commit messages in *-commits subject lines?

Hi, everyone. I was comparing our commit messages with another commit list
I'm on, and I realized (not for the first time) that our subject lines are
less than useful. Why don't we have the first line of our commit messages in
the subject lines? Compare:

[cfe-commits] r167788 - in /cfe/trunk: lib/Analysis/CFG.cpp
test/Analysis/dead-stores.cpp

with

[cfe-commits] r167788 - Fix bad CFG construction bug when handling C++
'try' statements.

The first gives me just enough information (in my abbreviated mesage list
window) to see that there was a change to Clang's Analysis library; if I
look at the whole subject, I can see what files were changed (or the first few,
at least). But the second actually tells me what changed, and whether or not it
affects me.

Having this form will also encourage people to put a useful summary in the first
line of their commit, which is useful for anyone viewing history (especially git
users, where the one-line summary is very common).

Is there a reason we currently prefer files to log messages?
Jordan

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 2:20 PM, Jordan Rose <jordan_rose at apple.com>
wrote:
> Hi, everyone. I was comparing our commit messages with another commit list
I'm on, and I realized (not for the first time) that our subject lines are
less than useful. Why don't we have the first line of our commit messages in
the subject lines? Compare:
>
> [cfe-commits] r167788 - in /cfe/trunk: lib/Analysis/CFG.cpp
test/Analysis/dead-stores.cpp
>
> with
>
> [cfe-commits] r167788 - Fix bad CFG construction bug when handling C++
'try' statements.
>
> The first gives me just enough information (in my abbreviated mesage list
window) to see that there was a change to Clang's Analysis library; if I
look at the whole subject, I can see what files were changed (or the first few,
at least). But the second actually tells me what changed, and whether or not it
affects me.
>
> Having this form will also encourage people to put a useful summary in the
first line of their commit, which is useful for anyone viewing history
(especially git users, where the one-line summary is very common).
>
> Is there a reason we currently prefer files to log messages?
I suspect not. I would much prefer your suggestion. If you can
implement the fix to our scripts (and get Tanya or Chris or Anton to
give you access), I would be thrilled.

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 2:20 PM, Jordan Rose <jordan_rose at apple.com>
wrote:
> Hi, everyone. I was comparing our commit messages with another commit list
I'm on, and I realized (not for the first time) that our subject lines are
less than useful. Why don't we have the first line of our commit messages in
the subject lines? Compare:
>
> [cfe-commits] r167788 - in /cfe/trunk: lib/Analysis/CFG.cpp
test/Analysis/dead-stores.cpp
>
> with
>
> [cfe-commits] r167788 - Fix bad CFG construction bug when handling C++
'try' statements.
>
> The first gives me just enough information (in my abbreviated mesage list
window) to see that there was a change to Clang's Analysis library; if I
look at the whole subject, I can see what files were changed (or the first few,
at least). But the second actually tells me what changed, and whether or not it
affects me.
>
> Having this form will also encourage people to put a useful summary in the
first line of their commit, which is useful for anyone viewing history
(especially git users, where the one-line summary is very common).
Also, having this format would mean we would be less likely to go over
the subject character limit that causes gmail to truncate subjects &
break threading...

So for both/all those reasons, I'd love this.
> Is there a reason we currently prefer files to log messages?
> Jordan
> _______________________________________________
> cfe-dev mailing list
> cfe-dev at cs.uiuc.edu
> http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev

> Also, having this format would mean we would be less likely to go over
> the subject character limit that causes gmail to truncate subjects &
> break threading...
yes.please. This is so annoying. Fixing that alone would be worth it.

-- Sean Silva

On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 5:30 PM, David Blaikie <dblaikie at gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 2:20 PM, Jordan Rose <jordan_rose at
apple.com> wrote:
>> Hi, everyone. I was comparing our commit messages with another commit
list I'm on, and I realized (not for the first time) that our subject lines
are less than useful. Why don't we have the first line of our commit
messages in the subject lines? Compare:
>>
>> [cfe-commits] r167788 - in /cfe/trunk: lib/Analysis/CFG.cpp
test/Analysis/dead-stores.cpp
>>
>> with
>>
>> [cfe-commits] r167788 - Fix bad CFG construction bug when handling C++
'try' statements.
>>
>> The first gives me just enough information (in my abbreviated mesage
list window) to see that there was a change to Clang's Analysis library; if
I look at the whole subject, I can see what files were changed (or the first
few, at least). But the second actually tells me what changed, and whether or
not it affects me.
>>
>> Having this form will also encourage people to put a useful summary in
the first line of their commit, which is useful for anyone viewing history
(especially git users, where the one-line summary is very common).
>
> Also, having this format would mean we would be less likely to go over
> the subject character limit that causes gmail to truncate subjects &
> break threading...
>
> So for both/all those reasons, I'd love this.
>
>> Is there a reason we currently prefer files to log messages?
>> Jordan
>> _______________________________________________
>> cfe-dev mailing list
>> cfe-dev at cs.uiuc.edu
>> http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev
>
> _______________________________________________
> cfe-dev mailing list
> cfe-dev at cs.uiuc.edu
> http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cfe-dev

On Nov 15, 2012, at 2:28 PM, Chandler Carruth <chandlerc at google.com>
wrote:
>> [cfe-commits] r167788 - in /cfe/trunk: lib/Analysis/CFG.cpp
test/Analysis/dead-stores.cpp
>> 
>> with
>> 
>> [cfe-commits] r167788 - Fix bad CFG construction bug when handling C++
'try' statements.
>> 
>> The first gives me just enough information (in my abbreviated mesage
list window) to see that there was a change to Clang's Analysis library; if
I look at the whole subject, I can see what files were changed (or the first
few, at least). But the second actually tells me what changed, and whether or
not it affects me.
>> 
>> Having this form will also encourage people to put a useful summary in
the first line of their commit, which is useful for anyone viewing history
(especially git users, where the one-line summary is very common).
>> 
>> Is there a reason we currently prefer files to log messages?
> 
> I suspect not. I would much prefer your suggestion. If you can
> implement the fix to our scripts (and get Tanya or Chris or Anton to
> give you access), I would be thrilled.
I'm in favor of it.  Of course, the truly awesomest thing would be something
like:

    [cfe-commits] r167788 - [lib/Analysis] Fix bad CFG construction bug when
handling C++ 'try' statements.

Even if it required some heuristics and horrible hackery in the commit script,
it would be worth it.

-Chris