Error message if colon is missed is highly misleading

[RosieBaish]

If you type a commit message but forget the colon after the type you get the error messages [subject-empty] and [type-empty] which are highly misleading.
It might be obvious to an expert user, but to a casual user it really wasn't.

Expected Behavior

echo "test(foo)

bar" | npx --no-install commitlint -V
⧗ input: test(foo)

bar
✖ subject may not be empty [subject-empty]
✖ type may not be empty [type-empty]
W warning - missing colon after scope [missing-colon]

✖ found 2 problems, 0 warnings
ⓘ Get help: https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/#what-is-commitlint

Current Behavior

echo "test(foo)

bar" | npx --no-install commitlint -V
⧗ input: test(foo)

bar
✖ subject may not be empty [subject-empty]
✖ type may not be empty [type-empty]

✖ found 2 problems, 0 warnings
ⓘ Get help: https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/#what-is-commitlint

Affected packages

• cli
• core
• prompt
• config-angular

Possible Solution

An additional warning message for any commit which matches the following

• Missing one or both of subject and type
• First non-whitespace character of second word is not ':' or '('
• If first non-whitespace character of second word is '(' then first non-whitespace character after matching ')' is not ':'

Steps to Reproduce (for bugs)

rvb@rosie-laptop:~/standby$ echo "test(foo)

bar" | npx --no-install commitlint -V
⧗ input: test(foo)

bar
✖ subject may not be empty [subject-empty]
✖ type may not be empty [type-empty]

✖ found 2 problems, 0 warnings
ⓘ Get help: https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/#what-is-commitlint

$ echo "test(foo) bar

desc" | npx --no-install commitlint -V
⧗ input: test(foo) bar

desc
✖ subject may not be empty [subject-empty]
✖ type may not be empty [type-empty]

✖ found 2 problems, 0 warnings
ⓘ Get help: https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/#what-is-commitlint

$ echo "test(foo): bar

desc" | npx --no-install commitlint -V
⧗ input: test(foo): bar
✔ found 0 problems, 0 warnings

Your Environment

npx --no-install commitlint -v
@commitlint/cli@13.1.0

$ uname -a
Linux <removed> 5.13.0-30-generic #33~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Mon Feb 7 14:25:10 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=20.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=focal
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS"

Executable	Version
commitlint --version	@commitlint/cli@13.1.0
git --version	git version 2.25.1
node --version	git version 2.25.1

[RosieBaish]

With the caveat that I'm not a javascript dev so this code will almost certainly need a rewrite.
I implemented a function that does the check I have in mind.
I'm fairly sure there's a better way to match for type and scope than [a-zA-Z]* but I don't know what.

function missing_colon_check(parsed, when = 'always', value = '')
{
  const {type, subject, header} = parsed;

  if (!(type === null && subject === null)) {
    // We have either a scope or subject so this check isn't required.
    return [true, "Check not required"];
  }

  //[a-zA-Z]* will match the type, this matches if the first non-whitespace character is '('
  const has_scope = header.match(/^[a-zA-Z]*\s*\(/)

  var has_colon;
  if (has_scope) {
    // First [a-zA-Z]* matches type, second matches scope. Whole regex matches if first non-whitespace character after the close bracket is ':'
    has_colon = header.match(/^[a-zA-Z]*\s*\([a-zA-Z]*\)\s*:/);
  } else {
    // [a-zA-Z]* matches type, whole regex matches if first non-whitespace character is ':'
    has_colon = header.match(/^[a-zA-Z]*\s*:/);
  }

  // Coerce to bool
  has_colon = !!has_colon;

  return [has_colon, has_colon ? "" : "Did you miss the colon?"]
}

[escapedcat]

Thanks for opening this @RosieBaish
You're right, this could be improved. Doubt we have time to look into this atm though.

[rahmatkurniawantiket]

I also face the same issue

git commit -m "feat: hello world" 
⧗   input: this commit nvalid
✖   subject may not be empty [subject-empty]
✖   type may not be empty [type-empty]

✖   found 2 problems, 0 warnings
ⓘ   Get help: https://github.com/conventional-changelog/commitlint/#what-is-commitlint

husky - pre-commit hook exited with code 1 (error)

Using the default config

{
  "extends": ["@commitlint/config-conventional"]
}

[escapedcat]

@rahmatkurniawantiket this is a differnt issue I believe. Might be similar/related to this: #3492 (comment)

Can you try if this works for you?:

git commit -m 'feat: hello world'

[slav-getov]

This was only resolved in my case/experience when I did 'feat(whatevertexthere): whatevertexhere'.

[elcozy]

hello @escapedcat , any update made on this pls?

[rahmatkurniawantiket]

@escapedcat have tried both not working

[escapedcat]

@rahmatkurniawantiket I do believe yours is a different issue than this. This issue is about missing a colon, yours seems to ti be different, yes?