Usefulness of Subject-header of git commit mails

[Johannes Sixt]

Am 1/28/2011 17:42, schrieb Andreas Hartmetz:
> 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.

No, really, you should make the summary line short (max 75 characters or
so), and follow it by a blank line. Some git tools merge everything up to
the first blank line into a single long line, notably 'git shortlog' and
'git log --pretty=format:%s'.

BTW, since you say "turns out to be a good summary": The commit message
should not just be a summary, but a *justification*. In particular, it
should put the commit into context. It's hardly possible to do that with a
single sentence.

-- Hannes