Linus Torvalds Asks Kernel Devs To Write Better Git Merge Commit Messages (phoronix.com) 11
Phoronix's Michael Larabel reports: Yesterday when announcing the Linux 6.12-rc2 kernel, Linus Torvalds asked that the kernel maintainers do a better job moving forward with their commit messages. In particular, Torvalds is hoping that kernel maintainers will do a better job using an active, imperative voice when describing the changes within their pull requests.
The Linux creator explained in the 6.12-rc2 announcement: "Anyway, on a completely different note: I try to make my merge commit messages be somewhat "cohesive", and so I often edit the pull request language to match a more standard layout and language. It's not a big deal, and often it's literally just about whitespace so that we don't have fifteen different indentation models and bullet syntaxes. I generally do it as I read through the text anyway, so it's not like it makes extra work for me. But what *does* make extra work is when some maintainers use passive voice, and then I try to actively rewrite the explanation (or, admittedly, sometimes I just decide I don't care quite enough about trying to make the messages sound the same). So I would ask maintainers to please use active voice, and preferably just imperative. [...]"
The Linux creator explained in the 6.12-rc2 announcement: "Anyway, on a completely different note: I try to make my merge commit messages be somewhat "cohesive", and so I often edit the pull request language to match a more standard layout and language. It's not a big deal, and often it's literally just about whitespace so that we don't have fifteen different indentation models and bullet syntaxes. I generally do it as I read through the text anyway, so it's not like it makes extra work for me. But what *does* make extra work is when some maintainers use passive voice, and then I try to actively rewrite the explanation (or, admittedly, sometimes I just decide I don't care quite enough about trying to make the messages sound the same). So I would ask maintainers to please use active voice, and preferably just imperative. [...]"
Re: (Score:3)
Do go on to explain how Torvalds asking that commit messages be somewhat "cohesive" is strange.
Re: (Score:2)
That there is not really a technical angle. When reading "better git merge commit messages" I expected it would be that the devs did not write useful contents, nobody could understand. But in the end it's just that Linus has his own style of typographical bullets and grammatical voices. I mean great, I understand the concern (a consistent style means it's probably a split second faster to parse and therefore a bit lower mental load for those reading many of such commit messages), but it's not much technical
Re: (Score:3)
... But in the end it's just that Linus has his own style of typographical bullets and grammatical voices.
Well, he does clarify a bit when he says "But what *does* make extra work is when some maintainers use passive voice". To my way of thinking that's more than a stylistic quibble. It's a way of helping to maintain a culture that isn't passive - or worse, passive-aggressive. Coding and documentation require directness, explicitness, and clarity. The passive voice runs counter to that.
Re: (Score:2)
Not really. It's about Linus Torvalds (insuring that it makes it to the front page of our open source techie site), and it's also about Git commit comment formatting (insuring an argument about proper Git commit comments in the discussion forum).
The only way it could be better is if it included a comment badmouthing Microsoft or praising cryptocurrency, which would then make it the perfect Slashdot post.
Then next.. (Score:2)
Eliminate any use of "get" from the text if it doesn't mean "to receive" and use the proper English terms for it.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
tl;dr (Score:2)
Passive voice isn't liked by Linus.
(I can't blame him, I don't like it either.)
Passive voice by Linus liked isn't (Score:2)
Saying, just.