Write git commit messages properly

Writing consistent commit messages helps you to weave a coherent story with your git history. Recently, I've started paying attention to my commit messages. Before this, my commit messages in this repository used to look like this:

With all the misuse of letter casings and punctuations, clearly, the message formatting is all over the place. To tame this mayhem, I've adopted these 7 rules of writing great commit messages:

The seven rules of writing consistent git commit messages

1. Separate subject from body with a blank line
2. Limit the subject line to 50 characters (I often break this when there's no message body)
3. Capitalize the subject line
4. Do not end the subject line with a period
5. Use the imperative mood in the subject line
6. Wrap the body at 72 characters
7. Use the body to explain what and why vs. how

Now, after rebasing, currently, the commit messages in this repo look like this:

Further reading

• How to write a git commit message