From 9ed8627a7615a268a57d5e738cd78246ca378769 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Hannu Hartikainen Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2017 22:26:32 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] CONTRIBUTING.md: improve commit message guidelines Add a brief request for expressing the motivation for a change. Change the example commit messages to match. Resolves #19126. --- .github/CONTRIBUTING.md | 16 +++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md b/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md index 8400aa5c684f..14f60b936f81 100644 --- a/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -14,14 +14,22 @@ under the terms of [COPYING](../COPYING), which is an MIT-like license. * Format the commits in the following way: - `(pkg-name | service-name): (from -> to | init at version | refactor | etc)` + ``` + (pkg-name | service-name): (from -> to | init at version | refactor | etc) + + (Motivation for change. Additional information.) + ``` Examples: * nginx: init at 2.0.1 * firefox: 3.0 -> 3.1.1 * hydra service: add bazBaz option + + Dual baz behavior is needed to do foo. * nginx service: refactor config generation + + The old config generation system used impure shell scripts and could break in specific circumstances (see #1234). * `meta.description` should: * Be capitalized @@ -30,6 +38,12 @@ under the terms of [COPYING](../COPYING), which is an MIT-like license. See the nixpkgs manual for more details on how to [Submit changes to nixpkgs](https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#chap-submitting-changes). +## Writing good commit messages + +In addition to writing properly formatted commit messages, it's important to include relevant information so other developers can later understand *why* a change was made. While this information usually can be found by digging code, mailing list archives, pull request discussions or upstream changes, it may require a lot of work. + +For package version upgrades and such a one-line commit message is usually sufficient. + ## Reviewing contributions See the nixpkgs manual for more details on how to [Review contributions](https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#sec-reviewing-contributions).