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I would strongly disagree with it, because it misses the opportunity for using the commit message as a sanity check. Accidents happen, sometimes I select the wrong file for the commit, or include changes I didn't intend.

Even for the most minor commits, including "improve comment formatting ; utils.pl" allows skimming that message and comparing it to the actual commit.

It also helps me be aware of what I'm doing, pointing and calling style.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_and_calling




To nitpick, the git commit already contains information about which files are affected; adding it explicitly to the commit message does not add value and, like comments, may be incorrect. I like the angular style guide's concept of "scope", like, what category or module of the application does it apply to.

That said, an "utils" file is often a smell in code organization.


> the git commit already contains information about which files are affected;

Contra: while this is true, it's worth considering how 'information about which files are effected' scales when examining the history of a repo. A commit message that simplifies and clarifies the intent is more useful than one that requires a future reader to read each git commit in full to understand the effect.


> the git commit already contains information about which files are affected

Right, but this is not always the same as the files which I intended to be affected, and the matching of the two is the sanity check here.

utils was just an example filename.




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