Referencing other commits in commit messages
Last week, I asked whether you should include issue IDs in commit messages.
Another thing I like to reference in a commit message is the commit ID (or SHA) of a related commit.
For example, when I run git log in my website repository, I see commits like this:
commit 0c91825c16217d0fe7eff4ea100a67550051c4a9
Author: Oliver Davies <[email protected]>
Date: Sat May 11 15:32:07 2024 +0200
Create a cached talk counter
Create a cached version of the talk counter service that returns a
cached result of the talk count for that day.
This uses the Decorator design pattern to decorate the existing
`TalkCounter` service and works as they both implement the same
`TalkCounterInterface`.
The sha for this commit is 0c91825c16217d0fe7eff4ea100a67550051c4a9.
If I was to make another commit that was related to this one, I can include this commit sha in my new commit message.
I also don't need to include the entire thing - only enough for it to be unique (usually five or six characters).
Once pushed, the commit IDs should never change, so this will be a permanent reference to the first commit.
Helpfully, websites like GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket will identify it as a commit sha and make it clickable so you can easily navigate to the referenced commit.
- Oliver
