Commit Message Editor

Commit Message Editor

The git-cola commit message editor is a simple text widget for entering commit messages.

Sign Off

The Sign Off button adds the standard:

Signed-off-by: A. U. Thor <a.u.thor@example.com>

to the bottom of the commit message.

Pressing this button is equivalent to passing the -s option to git commit.

Commit

The commit button runs git commit. The contents of the commit message editor is provided as the commit message.

Only staged files are included in the commit – this is the same behavior as running git commit on the command-line.

Line and Column Display

The current line and column number is displayed below the text entry area. The 5,0 display in the image means that the cursor is located at line five, column zero.

The display changes colors as lines start getting too long. Yellow indicates the safe boundary for sending patches to a mailing list and keeping space for inline reply markers.

Orange indicates that the line is starting to run a bit long and should break soon.

Red indicates that the line is running up against the standard 80-column limit for commit messages.

Commit messages with lines longer than 80 characters are discouraged. git log is a powerful command-line tool so obeying the convention of keeping commit messages within the 80-character terminal width is highly encouraged.

Amend Last Commit

Clicking on Amend Last Commit makes git-cola amend the previous commit instead of creating a new one. git-cola loads the previous commit message into the commit message editor when this option is selected.

The Repository Status tool will display all of the changes for the amended commit. All files that changed in the amended commit will show up as Staged.

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