WTF Commit Messages
summary
Shows real commit-message examples from open-source and enterprise repos, explains why messages must answer why not just what, gives concrete heuristics like using an imperative subject line and keeping context in the body, and demonstrates git workflows—interactive rebase and squashing—plus when to leave intermediate commits because CI-only checks force iterative commits. Emphasis is on actionable fixes: what to write, why a change happened, and how to make history readable for future debugging.
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chapters (7)
- 0:00Commit messages intro
- 3:02Why commit messages matter
- 15:10Poor commit message costs
- 20:54Structuring good commits
- 31:12Bad commit examples
- 37:34Squashing commits
- 41:13Q&A
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29mDocumentation Tradeoffs and Why Good Commits Matter
49mWrite history, keep a diary
41mGetting more from Git
16mHow To Make A "Perfect" Git Commit
