If possible, make atomic commits, which means:
- a commit should contain exactly one self-contained functional change
- a functional change should be contained in exactly one commit
- a commit should not create an inconsistent state (such as test errors, linting errors, partial fix, feature with documentation etc...)
A complex feature can be broken down into multiple commits as long as each one maintains a consistent state and consists of a self-contained change.
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.
The footer can contain a closing reference to an issue.
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.
The type must be one of the following:
Type | Description |
---|---|
build | Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies (example scopes: gulp, broccoli, npm) |
ci | Changes to our CI configuration files and scripts (example scopes: Travis, Circle, BrowserStack, SauceLabs) |
docs | Documentation only changes |
feat | A new feature |
fix | A bug fix |
perf | A code change that improves performance |
refactor | A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature |
style | Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white-space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc) |
test | Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests |
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
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.
The footer should contain any information about Breaking Changes and is also the place to reference GitLab 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.
`fix(pencil): stop graphite breaking when too much pressure applied`
`feat(pencil): add 'graphiteWidth' option`
Fix #42
perf(pencil): remove graphiteWidth option`
BREAKING CHANGE: The graphiteWidth option has been removed.
The default graphite width of 10mm is always used for performance reasons.