Tim Pope's Commit Message format - BDFL version. http://tbaggery.com/2008/04/19/a-note-about-git-commit-messages.html

commit-msg

#!/bin/sh
message=`sed '/^#/,$d' $1`
firstLine=`echo "$message" | awk 'NR>1{exit};1'`
exitCode=0
txtred=$(tput setaf 1)    # Red
txtrst=$(tput sgr0)       # Text reset


if [[ "`echo "$firstLine" | awk '{print length()}'`" -gt 49 ]]; then
    echo "${txtred}[POLICY] Ensure first line in your commit message is no longer than 50 characters${txtrst}"
    exitCode=1
fi

if [[ "`echo "$message" | awk ' { if ( length > x ) { x = length } }END{ print x }'`" -gt "71" ]]; then
    echo "${txtred}[POLICY] Ensure no lines in your commit message are no longer than 72 chars${txtrst}"
    exitCode=1
fi

if [[ "$exitCode" -gt "0" ]]; then
    echo "Your commit message was:\n"
    echo "$message" | awk '{ print "    " $0 }'
    echo ""
fi

exit $exitCode