Commit Message Guidelines

Example of a properly formed commit message:

```
JIRA-123 Short (72 chars or less) summary

More details about the change, including functional and/or technical
explanation. Wrap it to 72 characters. The blank line separating the
summary from the body is critical (unless you omit the body entirely).

Further paragraphs come after blank lines.

- Use bullet points if needed (preceded with hyphen or an asterisk, use 
MarkDown notation if possible)
```


### Good examples

```
Fix color of the inbox message on the welcome screen
```

```
[#123] Add option to fix myself a coffee with a button

When a button is pressed on the mobile, the remote coffee machine 
will start coffee preparation process
```

### Bad examples

```
Fixed proj-123
```

```
Fixed a bug in class Z.
```

``` 
- enabled the flag
```

Guidance for well-written commit messages:

* separate subject from body with a blank line
* use the imperative mood in the subject line, e.g. "Fix broken image" instead
of "Fixed broken image"
* do not end the subject line with a period
* capitalize the subject line and each paragraph
* wrap lines at 72 characters

Use the body to explain what and why you have done something. 
In most cases, you can leave out details about how a change has been made.
Some questions that can aid in formulating explanation section:

* The first commit line is the most important
* Describe why a change is being made
* How does it address the issue?
* Do not assume the reviewer understands what the original problem was
* Do not assume the code is self-evident/self-documenting
* Read the commit message to see if it hints at improved code structure
* Describe any limitations of the current code


Referencing ticket systems:

```
[#123] Refer to GitHub issue...
JIRA-123 Refer to Jira ticket with project identifier JIRA...

Fixes #123, JIRA-345 by introducting new class parameter.

```

Sources
- https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/GitCommitMessages
- http://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/
- http://tbaggery.com/2008/04/19/a-note-about-git-commit-messages.html
- https://confluence.atlassian.com/bitbucket/use-smart-commits-298979931.html