Beyond that, though, I feel like the rules are stupid because I've seen more than a couple commit messages which were contorted to avoid imperative. My own standard for commit messages is that 1) Is the problem explained, especially what it looks like to user space? 2) Is it clear what the solution is? 3) Does the patch itself raise any questions that I can't figure out and which aren't explained in the commit message. And I figure I'm not a domain expert but if I can understand the commit message probably anyone can. We've got people who speak English as a second language and then start imposing pointless rules on top? It's crazy. I've had to ask someone recently to redo a commit message and it seemed very obvious they were focused on nonsense about imperative and avoiding saying "this patch" to the extent that I literally could not figure out what they were saying. When I read the patch, of course, I could see what they were doing but from the commit message it was impossible. regards, dan carpenter
