git-consistent

Git Consistent is a set of config files to keep your commit messages and branch names consistent for all contributors of a project. It works with Linux and macOS.

It can be very useful for large projects, personal projects, and as an easy to configure client-side tool when your git host doesn't support server-side git hooks.

To the extent possible under law, I waive all copyright and related or neighboring rights to git-consistent.

Use

1. Download/copy the ".gitconfig" directory into your new git repository.
2. Edit the TOPICS and BRANCHES file to taste (or remove either to go laissez-faire).
3. Each contributor runs .gitconfig/install to setup their repo after clone.

.gitconfig/TOPICS

# Project-style topics
client
server
tools

# OR Issue-style topics
story
task
fix

.gitconfig/BRANCHES

# We could use git-flow style
master
develop
release/*
feature/*
hotfix/*

Features

The .gitconfig directory uses git hooks and templates to enforce consistent commit messages and branch names.

The rules are mostly based off of Chris Beam's "How to Write a Git Commit Message", in addition to using the torvalds/linux, python/cpython, hashicorp/terraform, facebook/react, and angular/angular repositories as references.

Commit Message Rules

• Subject line is like either "Add change" or "project: implement it"
• Subject line must not be longer than 50 characters
• Subject line must not end with a period
• Subject line must be imperative (eg. "add", not "added" or "adding")
• When using "topic: summary", the topics can be configured in TOPICS
• Larger commits must include a description (like this!)
• A body/description, when included, must be wrapped at 72 characters

In general, I chose to implement two styles instead of one so that sub-project/package/module specific changes can be quickly identified, while repository-level commits are consistent with git's builtin commit defaults like "Merge", "Revert", etc.