[parted-devel] Proposal for a guideline on patch short descriptions

[Jim Meyering]

Otavio Salvador <otavio at debian.org> wrote:
> I was looking at our short log GIT output and realized that it might
> be improved.
>
> I'd like to propose the following "commit groups"
>
>  [libparted] - commits related to the libparted itself
>  [parted] - commits related to the parted UI
>  [parted-ng] - commits related to the new parted UI
>  [partprobe] - commits related to the partprobe utility
>  [tests] - commits related to library and integration tests

I find that the summary log line is already limited enough in length,
and with a well written description the reader can easily tell
which parts are affected.  So I don't think it's worth the trouble.

However, as with other types of "process" (like indentation),
this can be a good thing, but only if it is automated:

  - it should be automated: i.e. I should be able to use a pre-commit script
  to check each commit I make to ensure it has one of the accepted prefixes
  - it must be enforced on the centralized repository, too (a pre-push,
  aka update, hook)
  - use shorter prefixes, e.g., "parted: ", not "[parted] - ".
  - speaking of shortening, any prefix containing "parted" is redundant,
  so here are shorter ones to consider:
      lib:
      ui:
      ui-ng:
      test:
      doc:
      partprobe:

I'd be more enthusiastic about the idea if there were already such tools.