Add an option to hide Summary/Description in commit message and let us just time a plain message.

147 votes

Please add an option to hide Summary/Description in a commit message window, I never use it and just type everything in description, Summary just eats up my display space. Size of the commit message window is already restrictively small to waste it for summary and description as I can't see the full message as I type it have to scroll back and forth to read and edit it. I understand that it's a part of git best practices to have a shot summary and a longer description in your commit message but git client itself does not enforce it in any way and has just a message option -m with commits. Having summary and description is rather a github convention and can't/shouldn't be enforced. Some people use this convention some not, having a simple switch in option to switch between summary/description and simple message would appeal to both parties :).

Under consideration Suggested by: Vlad Sharanhovich (07 Oct, '21) • Upvoted: 18 Dec, '24 • Comments: 6

Comments: 6

09 Dec, '21
Steven Segers
The benefit of splitting the commit message in two separate fields has always been lost on me. I often find it very annoying not being able to move the cursor up and down to/from the first line using the keyboard.
07 Jan, '22
Wouter
When just submitting a Description and leaving the Summary empty, some websites like GitLab and Gogs don't see it as a commit message. In GitKraken, the Description is moved to the position of the Summary, but it actually still is a Description, with an empty Summary. This should be more consistent.
I think this is a great suggestion since it lets the user choose whether to enter a single commit message, or also add a description.
08 Jun, '22
William Jockusch
I would love this. Personally, I just never use the lower "Description" field. I ignore the 80 char limit and put everything into the summary. Basically, I don't want it split up.
03 Aug, '22
Edmond
I had a strange issue with GitLab, that my commit messages are sometimes displayed as three dots. I spent a lot of time finding the cause of this issue, until one of my colleagues told me that if she only types in the description and leaves the summary empty, this will happen. I could finally resolve this issue and would really appreciate having an option to disable the description field to make life easier...
19 Jan, '23
Martin
This is actually a horrible suggestion. If you're not using the two fields, you're doing git wrong. The Summary field is automatically separated from the rest of the message by a new line, so there's no need to remember to do it manually.

And that's how it should be. Each commit message has a standard format of 1 short line (up to e.g. 72chars) followed by a newline and a longer message body. Plethora of git-related tools rely on this convention. Gitlab, Gerrit, git shortlog, and many others... Even GitKraken itself relies on this - the graph displays only the Summary and the message body is hidden. If the Summary is too long it gets truncated with three dots.

I suggest you first learn how to write proper Git commits (https://cbea.ms/git-commit/) before requesting a removal of a useful feature. Removing this would, I think, lead to a greater prevalence of badly written commit messages, which is bad for the whole IT community. Therefore I urge Axosoft to not consider this suggestion.
1
05 Jun, '23
János
@Steven Segers you can use TAB or Shift+TAB to jump between the two fields. No need to use a mouse.

I never had an issue with this feature. On the contrary, I think it makes me write better commits.
1