How to Set a Default Commit Message
Having a default commit message is really useful for a number of reasons:
- It can formalize your commit messages
- It serves as a good reminder for the information you should add to your commit message, like issue number
- If you set it to "Drunk AF, don't accept this"
To set a default commit message on your local machine, start by executing the following from command line:
git config --global commit.template ~/.gitmessage
This tells your local git config to pull the text from ~/.gitmessage as the default commit message. You could set the text to something like:
Fix Issue #{number}: {description}
R+: {reviewer}
Of course, if you set your commit message via git commit -m {description}, the default will not be used, so it's a win-win!
![9 Mind-Blowing WebGL Demos]()
As much as developers now loathe Flash, we're still playing a bit of catch up to natively duplicate the animation capabilities that Adobe's old technology provided us. Of course we have canvas, an awesome technology, one which I highlighted 9 mind-blowing demos. Another technology available...
![Designing for Simplicity]()
Before we get started, it's worth me spending a brief moment introducing myself to you. My name is Mark (or @integralist if Twitter happens to be your communication tool of choice) and I currently work for BBC News in London England as a principal engineer/tech...
![Spoiler Prevention with CSS Filters]()
No one likes a spoiler. Whether it be an image from an upcoming film or the result of a football match you DVR'd, sometimes you just don't want to know. As a possible provider of spoiler content, some sites may choose to warn users ahead...
![Image Data URIs with PHP]()
If you troll page markup like me, you've no doubt seen the use of data URI's within image src attributes. Instead of providing a traditional address to the image, the image file data is base64-encoded and stuffed within the src attribute. Doing so saves...
What if you want to include some of the lines from the default commit message in your template? One thing that is not indicated here is that the content of the default message is included with your template content (combined) when the actual commit template is displayed in the editor.
See: commit.template section in https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Configuration
Or test it yourself..
BUT! What if you need to change the order that the default commit message lines appear in your templated commit message? For example..
The default git commit message (as of this date) is:
=======================================================================
# Please enter the commit message for your changes. Lines starting
# with ‘#’ will be ignored, and an empty message aborts the commit.
#
# On branch master
#
# Initial commit
#
# Changes to be committed:
# new file: blah
#
# ———————— >8 ————————
# Do not modify or remove the line above.
# Everything below it will be ignored.
diff –git a/blah b/blah
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
=======================================================================
But what if you need it to be:
=======================================================================
Changes to be committed: new file: blah
On branch master
Initial commit
# ———————— >8 ————————
# Do not modify or remove the line above.
# Everything below it will be ignored.
diff –git a/blah b/blah
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
=======================================================================
Where “Initial commit” is included / omitted (as it normally is) based on whether it is the initial commit or not. In other words, you want to reformat the default commit message’ content so that when it is combined with your template it will read in the order and format that you want it.
Is there a way to do this?