Re: [PATCH 3/3] commit: give a hint when a commit message has been abandoned

Jeff King [off-list ref] writes:

On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 02:35:01PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
...

quoted

I also wondered if something like the following might be useful, but
it probably falls into the "water under the bridge" category.

 builtin/commit.c | 5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/builtin/commit.c b/builtin/commit.c
index 149e07d..83bcee4 100644
--- a/builtin/commit.c
+++ b/builtin/commit.c

@@ -768,6 +768,11 @@ static int prepare_to_commit(const char *index_file, const char *prefix,
 				"with '#' will be kept; you may remove them"
 				" yourself if you want to.\n"
 				"An empty message aborts the commit.\n"));
+		status_printf(s, GIT_COLOR_NORMAL,
+			      _("The file '%s' keeps a copy of the log message\n"
+				"you edited, if you wish to inspect it later.\n"
+				"It will be wiped by the next invocation of 'git commit'.\n"),
+			      git_path("COMMIT_EDITMSG"));

That seems excessive, as it is inside the file itself. Unless your
editor is terrible, it already shows you that information.

The pathname was not the part that was interesting; "If you wish to
inspect it later" was.

But that is what makes it water under the bridge.  The message will
be gone by the time you really need it.