pkgsrc Commit Message Policy

[Thomas Klausner <wiz%NetBSD.org@localhost>]

For several years, there have been mirrors of pkgsrc in fossil, git,
and hg. Standard practise when using these tools is to make the first
line of a commit message function as a summary that can be read
without the rest, such as is commonly done with "git log --oneline".
Note that having a new commit message policy does not imply that a
decision to move to a DVCS has been made, but simply that we are now
in a world where DVCS usage is pervasive, even for repositories that
are authoritatively in CVS.

For this reason, pkgsrc-pmc has decided on the following guidelines
for pkgsrc commit messages:

Start the commit message with a line that explains the big picture in
50 characters or less. When a commit is for one package, include the
name of the package. For updates, include the version to which it is
updated.

Leave the next line empty.

Then come the details for the commit (changes in that package, reason
for a change) and any relevant PRs. Wrap this section.

Here is an example:

--- begin example ---
libxslt: update to 1.0.30

Changes since 1.0.29:
...
--- end example ---

Here is another example:


--- begin example ---
mk/bsd.pkg.mk: enable SSP by default on NetBSD

(rationale)
--- end example ---

As before, commit messages are final, no 'cvs admin' is allowed on the
pkgsrc repository to change commit messages.

Cheers,
 Thomas (for pkgsrc-pmc)