mattst/Git Commit Guidelines.md

## Git Commit Guidelines.md

      
    Raw
  

              Git Commit Guidelines.md
            
          
The AngularJS GIT commit guidelines: http://goo.gl/Ar4UHA


A detailed explanation can be found: http://goo.gl/iZth0R


Below is my slightly edited version; view in my Gist: https://goo.gl/MEjIkF


Git Commit 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 AngularJS change log.
Commit Message Format

Each commit message consists of a header, a body and a footer.  The header has a special format that includes a type, a scope and a subject:
<type>(<scope>): <subject>
<BLANK LINE>
<body>
<BLANK LINE>
<footer>

The header is mandatory and the scope of the header is optional.
Any line of the commit message cannot be longer 100 characters! This allows the message to be easier to read on GitHub as well as in various git tools.
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
docs: Documentation only changes
style: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white-space, formatting, missing
semi-colons, etc)
refactor: A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature
perf: A code change that improves performance
test: Adding missing tests
chore: Changes to the build process or auxiliary tools and libraries such as documentation
generation

Scope

The scope could be anything specifying place of the commit change. For example $location, $browser, $compile, $rootScope, ngHref, ngClick, ngView, 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.