Re: Is this a bug?

From: Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se>
Date: Feb 19, 2013, 09:42 UTC
Message-ID: <51234923.7090807@op5.se>
In-Reply-To: <937BB05095F39E46B969256AA776205322B2CF15C7@ST-EXCL29.statoil.net>

On 02/19/2013 10:32 AM, David Wade wrote:

Show 13 quoted lines

> Hi,
> 
> I wrote a commit message beginning with a hash (#) character, like
> this: 'git commit -m "#ifdef ...." '
> 
> Everything went okay when committing, but then I tried 'git commit
> -amend' and without editing the commit message I was told I had an
> empty commit message.
> 
> Is this a problem with my text editor (vim 7.2) or git itself? (git
> version 1.7.2.2 under RedHat 5.8) Or something I'm not supposed to do
> ;-) ?
>

Lines starting with a hash sign are considered comments by git commit. If you fire it up without '-m' you'll see that git puts all its own notes about the commit in commented-out lines.

While empty commit messages aren't really unacceptable by git's model, they're considered "almost certainly user errors". I expect the -m flag being present when running 'git commit' causes the check for empty message to be skipped, which isn't the case when amending the commit.

Btw, when I write messages probably similar to the one you just did, I
tend to write:
  Use compat-layer __builtin_clz() #ifndef __GNUC__
precisely to avoid this issue. It also puts the imperative first,
which I find makes for smoother reading. Putting the condition first
screams for a comma and a slight stagger in reading flow, like so:
  Unless built with gcc, use compat-layer __builtin_clz()

-- 
Andreas Ericsson                   andreas.ericsson@op5.se
OP5 AB                             www.op5.se
Tel: +46 8-230225                  Fax: +46 8-230231

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