<One-liner summary of changes> <Empty Line> <Verbose description of the changes> <Empty Line> <Special Tags>
Some commit history viewers treat the first line of commit messages as the summary for the commit. So, an effort should be made to format our commit messages in that fashion. The verbose description may contain multiple paragraphs, itemized lists, etc. Always end the first sentence (and any subsequent sentences) with punctuation.
Commit messages should be wrapped at 80 columns.
Assuming that you have bug marshal access (and if you have commit access, it is pretty safe to assume that you do), you will find the commit message template section directly below the issue details section and above the issue relationships section. You will have to click the '+' next to "Commit message template" to make the contents of the section visible.
Here is an example of what the template will generate for you:
(closes issue #1234) Reported by: SomeGuy Patches: fix_bug_1234.diff uploaded by SomeDeveloper (license 5678)
If the patch being committed was written by the person doing the commit, and is not available to reference as an upload to the issue, there is no need to include something like "fixed by me", as that will be the default assumption when a specific patch is not referenced.
If you are using the expect script wrappers for svnmerge from repotools, a commit message is automatically placed in the file '../merge.msg'.
For more detailed information about working with branches and merging, see the following page on asterisk.org: