Is there a convention for referring to a previous commit in a git commit message?
Example commit message:
Fixed bug such and such introduced in a1b2c3e4
In particular, is there a convention that github.com will understand, and convert to a link?
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2 Answers
Yup - GitHub will pick up references to SHAs and users/repos patterns using the GitHub Flavored Markdown
Specifically about linking to commits:
A bit of the GitHub spice
In addition to the changes in the previous section, certain references are auto-linked:
- SHA: be6a8cc1c1ecfe9489fb51e4869af15a13fc2cd2
- User@SHA ref: mojombo@be6a8cc1c1ecfe9489fb51e4869af15a13fc2cd2
- User/Project@SHA: mojombo/god@be6a8cc1c1ecfe9489fb51e4869af15a13fc2cd2
- #Num: #1
- User/#Num: mojombo#1
- User/Project#Num: mojombo/god#1
7 Comments
Joel
Thanks! This is very helpful. I wonder if I'd get away with using an abbreviated SHA and still have it converted to a link..
Michael
Not sure - never tested it, but you could (if you're the only one using the remote, otherwise it gets a bit dangerous), push an abbreviated hash, then amend that commit if it doesn't work to the full one and push it again.
mgarciaisaia
@Joel: It works ;-)
Joel
Thanks @desert69 for testing that
mgarciaisaia
@Joel you still have to remember that it's an abbreviated SHA. If your repo gets big enough (kernel-like big, I know), your abbreviated SHA length could increase, leading you to ambiguities. So, you can use an abbreviated SHA, but if it's not that much effort, I think it's allways better to use the full SHA. Github auto-trims it for you.
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Guys at git answers the question this way:
If you want to reference a previous commit in the history of a stable branch, use the format "abbreviated hash (subject, date)", like this:
Commit f86a374 (pack-bitmap.c: fix a memleak, 2015-03-30) noticed that ...The "Copy commit summary" command of gitk can be used to obtain this format (with the subject enclosed in a pair of double-quotes), or this invocation of git show:
git show -s --pretty=reference <commit>or, on an older version of Git without support for --pretty=reference:
git show -s --date=short --pretty='format:%h (%s, %ad)' <commit>
Addition Feb 2024
I ended-up adding an alias ref = show -s --pretty=reference. It helps a lot.
2 Comments
Craig Brown
Note that this is referring to a convention for contributing to git itself, rather than being a convention for git repositories in general.
icc97
It may be referring to how to commit to git itself, but it is a generally excellent set of guidelines for how to write a commit message. The
git show -s --pretty=reference <commit> is a lovely command. Using this reference makes it much easier to understand what the commit is referring to without needing to click through to see the full commit details.