[fweimer]

The commit message should complement the code. Ideally, what the code does should not need a separate description, but of course there can be exceptions. Usually, it's more interesting to capture in the commit message what is not in the code: the reason why this approach was chosen and not some other obvious one. Or describe what is missing, and why it isn't needed.

[ImPostingOnHN]

That sounds like design discussions best had in the issue/ticket itself, before you even start writing code. Then the commit message references the ticket and has a brief summary of the changes.

Writing and reading paragraphs of design discussion in a commit message is not something that seems common.

[fweimer]

Ticket systems are quite ephemeral. I still have access to commit messages from the 90s (and I didn't work on the software at the time). I haven't been able to track the contents of the gnats bug tracker from those days.

And of course tickets can be private, so even if the data survived migration, you may not have access to it (principle of least privilege and all that).

[jpfromlondon]

if you've changed a function and are worried about the reason for the change not being tracked or disappearing, then add it as a comment, the commit message is not the place for this.

[skydhash]

Not really about design, but technical reasons why this solution came to be when it’s not that obvious. It’s not often needed. And when it does, it usually fits in a short paragraph.

[ImPostingOnHN]

> technical reasons why this solution came to be

What you're describing here is a design. The most important parts of a design are the decisions and their reasoning.

e.g. "we decided on tool/library pattern X over tool/library/pattern Y because Z" – that is a design, usually discussed outside (and before) a commit message.

You discuss these decisions with others, document the discussion and decision, and then you have a design and can start writing code.

Let me ask you this: suppose you have a task that needs to be done eventually, and you want to write down some ideas for it, but don't want to start coding right now. Where do you put those ideas? How do you link them to that specific task?

[shakna]

So you'd disagree with style that Linux uses for their commits?

Random example:

Provide a new syscall which has the only purpose to yield the CPU after the kernel granted a time slice extension.

sched_yield() is not suitable for that because it unconditionally schedules, but the end of the time slice extension is not required to schedule when the task was already preempted. This also allows to have a strict check for termination to catch user space invoking random syscalls including sched_yield() from a time slice extension region.

From 99d2592023e5d0a31f5f5a83c694df48239a1e6c

[ImPostingOnHN]

I think my post makes it pretty clear that I would. If you want, I could cite several examples of organizations which use the method I described, so you can weigh it against the one example you provided, and get the full picture.

In your example, for example, where was the issue tracked before the code was written? The format you linked makes it difficult to get the history of the issue.

Let me ask you this: suppose you have a task that needs to be done eventually, and you want to write down some ideas for it, but don't want to start coding right now. Where do you put those ideas? How do you link them to that specific task?

[skydhash]

Everyone has its own system although companies do tend to codify it with a project manager. I used TODO.txt inside the repo. an org file, Things.app, a stack of papers, and a whiteboard. But once a task is done, I can summarize the context in a paragraph or two. That’s what I put in the commits.

[shakna]

Git was built for email, because that's the system Linux uses. Commits appear inline. Diffs are reviewed and commented inline.

Email is the review process, and commits contain enough information that git blame can get you a reasoning - it doesn't require you checking the email archive. Rather than a dead ticket that no longer exists.

I can also supply you a list of companies that make use of git's builtin features if you like. But thats probably not relevant to discussing management techniques.

[skydhash]

Here is an example

https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/commit/?id=407b1e4980189252fade...

You can find more example there

https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/log/?showmsg=1

[somat]

It sounds like if you are vibe-coding, that is, can't even be arsed to write a simple commit message, your commit message should be your prompt.