Subject: Re: [PATCH] merge: add instructions to the commit message when editing

From: Thomas Rast <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:46:04 +0100

Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]> writes:

> Thomas Rast <[email-masked]> writes:
>
>>>   Please enter the commit message for your merge commit.  Explain
>>>   why the merge is necessary, especially if it merges an updated
>>>   upstream into a topic branch.
>>>
>>> ... because people who need to be told to "justify it" would probably be
>>> helped by a more explicit "explain _why_ it is needed".
>>
>> Why not.  The "explain..." might be construed as a bit too coercive, but
>> I cannot come up with a way to defuse it (well, except again tacking on
>> "you should") ...
>
> Would "Please enter the commit message for your merge commit, to explain
> why ..." work?

Yes, though it winds up as a rather long sentence.  I could then shorten
it to

  Please enter a commit message that explains why the merge commit is
  necessary, especially if it merges an updated upstream into a topic
  branch.

though that's only _implying_ that you're completing a merge.

Your pick ;-)

-- 
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch