From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: John Keeping Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 10/45] sequencer: trivial fix Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2013 20:01:03 +0100 Message-ID: <20130609190103.GG22905@serenity.lan> References: <1370796057-25312-1-git-send-email-felipe.contreras@gmail.com> <1370796057-25312-11-git-send-email-felipe.contreras@gmail.com> <20130609171810.GA10858@goldbirke> <20130609173342.GB2091@goldbirke> <20130609173739.GF22905@serenity.lan> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Cc: SZEDER =?iso-8859-1?Q?G=E1bor?= , git@vger.kernel.org, Junio C Hamano , Ramkumar Ramachandra , Jonathan Nieder , Martin von Zweigbergk To: Felipe Contreras X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Sun Jun 09 21:01:24 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@plane.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Ulkrj-0006Lm-BD for gcvg-git-2@plane.gmane.org; Sun, 09 Jun 2013 21:01:23 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751164Ab3FITBS convert rfc822-to-quoted-printable (ORCPT ); Sun, 9 Jun 2013 15:01:18 -0400 Received: from jackal.aluminati.org ([72.9.247.210]:45511 "EHLO jackal.aluminati.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751089Ab3FITBR (ORCPT ); Sun, 9 Jun 2013 15:01:17 -0400 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by jackal.aluminati.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A5A82CDA5AF; Sun, 9 Jun 2013 20:01:16 +0100 (BST) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at serval.aluminati.org X-Spam-Flag: NO X-Spam-Score: -12.899 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-12.899 tagged_above=-9999 required=6.31 tests=[ALL_TRUSTED=-1, ALUMINATI_LOCAL_TESTS=-10, BAYES_00=-1.9, URIBL_BLOCKED=0.001] autolearn=ham Received: from jackal.aluminati.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (jackal.aluminati.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id RRzM+2QLbYRK; Sun, 9 Jun 2013 20:01:16 +0100 (BST) Received: from serenity.lan (tg1.aluminati.org [10.0.16.53]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by jackal.aluminati.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 00D27CDA595; Sun, 9 Jun 2013 20:01:05 +0100 (BST) Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On Sun, Jun 09, 2013 at 12:53:38PM -0500, Felipe Contreras wrote: > On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 12:37 PM, John Keeping wr= ote: > > On Sun, Jun 09, 2013 at 07:33:42PM +0200, SZEDER G=E1bor wrote: > >> On Sun, Jun 09, 2013 at 12:23:01PM -0500, Felipe Contreras wrote: > >> > On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 12:18 PM, SZEDER G=E1bor wrote: > >> > > On Sun, Jun 09, 2013 at 11:40:22AM -0500, Felipe Contreras wro= te: > >> > >> We should free objects before leaving. > >> > >> > >> > >> Signed-off-by: Felipe Contreras > >> > > > >> > > A shortlog-friendlier subject could be: "sequencer: free objec= ts > >> > > before leaving". > >> > > >> > I already defended my rationale for this succinct commit message= : > >> > > >> > http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/225609/fo= cus=3D225610 > >> > >> Your arguments were unconvincing. The mere fact that I raised thi= s > >> issue unbeknownst to the earlier posting clearly shows that there'= s > >> demand for descriptive subjects. > > > > Not to mention that with your subject no body is needed, making the > > overall message more succinct. >=20 > It's not succinct at all, because there's no short and quick > description of what the patch actually is; a trivial fix. Is it not equally succinct to say "fix memory leak"? > > When reading a log, as soon as I see "trivial" I become suspicious = that > > someone is trying to cover something up, much like "left as an exer= cise > > for the reader". If the subject says "fix memory leak" then it's > > obvious what the patch is meant to do, and when there is no subtlet= y to > > be explained (as there isn't in this patch) there is no need for a = body. >=20 > You are not a rational person then. The commit message has absolutely > no bearing on the quality of the code. If you are less suspicious of = a > commit message that says "fix memory leak", you are being completely > biased. > > Whether the commit message says "fix memory leak", or "trivial fix", > or "foobar", the code might still be doing something wrong, and you > can't decide that until you look at the code. I have a certain level of trust that commit summaries in git.git will b= e accurate. If I want to know what has changed, then "fix memory leak" implies "no functional change"; if I see "trivial fix" then how do I know what that is? It could be a whitespace change, a fix to a memory leak, a typo correction, a change to a separator in a message shown to the user, or even a small change to corner case behaviour. > If you don't care about the code, but still want to know what the > patch is doing, then you can look at the whole commit message, and "W= e > should free objects before leaving." explains that perfectly. The short message is what appears in "What's Cooking", why should I nee= d to break out of my mail client to find out what it means?