Daniel Axtens [off-list ref] writes:

Hi Matt,

quoted

The raid6 Q syndrome check has been optimised using the vpermxor
instruction.

Very much a nit, but normally we'd write the change that the patch makes
as a command: "Optimise the raid6 Q syndrome generation using the
vpermxor instruction" - see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.11/process/submitting-patches.html#describe-your-changes

There's a good list here:
  https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/

Which includes "Use the imperative mood in the subject line".

And has a good rule of thumb:

  A properly formed Git commit subject line should always be able to
  complete the following sentence:
  
  If applied, this commit will [your subject line here]


In this case Matt's subject is fine, but IMHO you should also use the
imperative mood for the body of the change log - which is basically what
you said :)

cheers