# Conventional Commit Messages
See how a minor change to your commit message style can make a difference. [Examples](#examples)
**Have a look at CLI util [git-conventional-commits](https://github.com/qoomon/git-conventional-commits) to ensure this conventions and generate changelogs**
## Commit Formats
### Default
<type>(<optional scope>): <subject>
empty separator line
<optional body>
empty separator line
<optional footer>
### Merge
Merge branch '<branch name>'
Follows default git merge message
### Types
* API relevant changes
* `feat` Commits, that adds a new feature
* `fix` Commits, that fixes a bug
* `refactor` Commits, that rewrite/restructure your code, however does not change any behaviour
* `perf` Commits are special `refactor` commits, that improve performance
* `style` Commits, that do not affect the meaning (white-space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc)
* `test` Commits, that add missing tests or correcting existing tests
* `docs` Commits, that affect documentation only
* `build` Commits, that affect build components like build tool, ci pipeline, dependencies, project version, ...
* `ops` Commits, that affect operational components like infrastructure, deployment, backup, recovery, ...
* `chore` Miscellaneous commits e.g. modifying `.gitignore`
### Scopes
The `scope` provides additional contextual information.
* Is an **optional** part of the format
* Allowed Scopes depends on the specific project
* Don't use issue identifiers as scopes
### Subject
The `subject` contains a succinct description of the change.
* Is a **mandatory** part of the format
* Use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes"
* Don't capitalize the first letter
* No dot (.) at the end
### Body
The `body` should include the motivation for the change and contrast this with previous behavior.
* Is an **optional** part of the format
* Use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes"
* This is the place to mention issue identifiers and their relations
### Footer
The `footer` should contain any information about **Breaking Changes** and is also the place to **reference Issues** that this commit refers to.
* Is an **optional** part of the format
* **optionally** reference an issue by its id.
* **Breaking Changes** should start with the word `BREAKING CHANGES:` followed by space or two newlines. The rest of the commit message is then used for this.
### Examples
* ```
feat(shopping cart): add the amazing button
```
* ```
feat: remove ticket list endpoint
refers to JIRA-1337
BREAKING CHANGES: ticket enpoints no longer supports list all entites.
```
* ```
fix: add missing parameter to service call
The error occurred because of .
```
* ```
build(release): bump version to 1.0.0
```
* ```
build: update dependencies
```
* ```
refactor: implement calculation method as recursion
```
* ```
style: remove empty line
```
## Git Hook Scripts to ensure commit message header format
### commit-msg Hook (local)
* create following file in your local repository folder`.git-hooks/commit-msg`
```shell
#!/usr/bin/env sh
commit_message="$1"
# exit with a non zero exit code incase of an invalid commit message
# use git-conventional-commits, see https://github.com/qoomon/git-conventional-commits
git-conventional-commits commit-msg-hook "$commit_message"
# or verify $commit_message with your own tooling
# ...
```
* ⚠ make `.git-hooks/commit-msg` executable (unix: `chmod +x '.git-hooks/commit-msg'`)
* set git hook directory to `.githooks` `git config core.hooksPath '.git-hooks'`
* commit `.git-hooks` directory if you want to share them with your team, they only need to call the git config command once after cloning the repository
### pre-receive Hook (server side)
* create following file in your repository folder `.git/hooks/pre-receive`
```shell
#!/usr/bin/env sh
# Pre-receive hook that will block commits with messges that do not follow regex rule
commit_msg_type_regex='feat|fix|refactor|style|test|docs|build'
commit_msg_scope_regex='.{1,20}'
commit_msg_subject_regex='.{1,100}'
commit_msg_regex="^(${commit_msg_type_regex})(\(${commit_msg_scope_regex}\))?: (${commit_msg_subject_regex})\$"
merge_msg_regex="^Merge branch '.+'\$"
zero_commit="0000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
# Do not traverse over commits that are already in the repository
excludeExisting="--not --all"
error=""
while read oldrev newrev refname; do
# branch or tag get deleted
if [ "$newrev" = "$zero_commit" ]; then
continue
fi
# Check for new branch or tag
if [ "$oldrev" = "$zero_commit" ]; then
rev_span=`git rev-list $newrev $excludeExisting`
else
rev_span=`git rev-list $oldrev..$newrev $excludeExisting`
fi
for commit in $rev_span; do
commit_msg_header=$(git show -s --format=%s $commit)
if ! [[ "$commit_msg_header" =~ (${commit_msg_regex})|(${merge_msg_regex}) ]]; then
echo "$commit" >&2
echo "ERROR: Invalid commit message format" >&2
echo "$commit_msg_header" >&2
error="true"
fi
done
done
if [ -n "$error" ]; then
exit 1
fi
```
* ⚠ make `.git/hooks/pre-receive` executable (unix: `chmod +x '.git/hooks/pre-receive'`)
-----
## References
* https://www.conventionalcommits.org/
* https://github.com/angular/angular/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md
* http://karma-runner.github.io/1.0/dev/git-commit-msg.html
* https://github.com/github/platform-samples/tree/master/pre-receive-hooks
* https://github.community/t5/GitHub-Enterprise-Best-Practices/Using-pre-receive-hooks-in-GitHub-Enterprise/ba-p/13863