Each commit message consists of a header, a body, a footer and the commiter signature. The Header has his own format that includes a type, a scope and a subject:
<type>(<scope>): <subject>
<BLANK LINE>
<body>
<BLANK LINE>
<footer>
<signature>
The header is mandatory and the scope of the header is optional.
Any line of the commit message cannot be longer 80 characters! This allows the message to be easier to read on GitHub as well as in various git tools.
The signature should be a sign-off or a co-authored tag that is commonly used on git.
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.
A commit with this format is automatically created by the [git revert][git-revert] command.
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 or correcting existing tests
- support: Changes to the build process or auxiliary tools and libraries such as documentation generation or continous integration configuration
The scope could be anything specifying place of the commit change. For example packages, tests, etc...
You can use * when the change affects more than a single scope.
The subject contains succint 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 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.
The signature is used to verify the author/commiters (signed-off) and to indicate joint work (co-authored-by). Use one at time, if you co-authoring a commit there is no need to sign that commit.
e.g.:
Signed-off-by: Miles Morales <miles@email.com>
Co-authored-by: Perter Parker <peter@email.com>