In a recent mailing list update, Linus Torvalds expressed frustration over passive voice in commit messages, urging developers to adopt a more active and clear communication style.

Linus Torvalds expressed frustration over the use of passive voice in merge commit messages, preferring active and imperative language instead.

He provided an example of how commit messages should be rewritten for clarity and consistency across the project.

Torvalds noted that while it’s not a major issue, it does add extra work when he has to rewrite messages to match his preference.

  • leftytighty@slrpnk.netEnglish
    2·
    12 hours ago

    I basically stole your comment but made a worse version. On this note, though, there’s sometimes value in using words like “fix” or other kinds of tagging or consistent formatting in the sense that you can do a meta-analysis of the repo history to look at trends (like the ratio of fixes to feature work) over time.

    Issue tracking software obviates that, somewhat, but having that info embedded in the repo history lets you go further and look at which files have the most fixes etc.

    Existing tools out there sometimes do this exact thing, but it can be manually done as well