Usefulness of Subject-header of git commit mails

[Parker Coates]

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 11:42, Andreas Hartmetz wrote:
> On Monday 24 January 2011 00:13:26 Eike Hein wrote:
>>
>> Yep - for the benefit of those who aren't used to the git
>> jargon (sorry for that), in git the convention is to for-
>> mat the commit message like this:
>>
>> <single line of about 50 chars, followed optionally by:>
>> <empty line>
>> <longer message>
>>
>> While deviating from this format is not particularly harm-
>> ful, git and various tools based on git 'rely' on this
>> convention to varying degrees.
>>
> Semi-OT: What is the empty line good for?
> Sometimes I just continue writing if the start of a long first sentence turns
> out to be a good summary.

I think it's just to emphasise that the first line is actually a
summary (or title or subject or whatever) and not *just* the first
line of a multi-line message. The first line should be able to stand
on its own and the blank line helps to make that obvious.

Parker