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Software Engineering vocabulary · Version Control

Commit message

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounCore term

In software engineering, commit message means: The short text that describes what a commit changes and why. Teammates read it later to understand the history of the code.

In Turkish: commit mesajı, değişiklik açıklaması

How it is used

A common style is a short summary line in the imperative mood ('Fix login timeout', not 'Fixed'), then a blank line and more detail. Many teams follow a convention such as Conventional Commits ('feat:', 'fix:'). Messages like 'update' or 'wip' are seen as bad practice.

Example sentences

  1. Please write a clearer commit message; 'changes' doesn't tell us anything.

  2. The commit message links to the ticket, so we know why the limit was raised.

Common collocations

  • write a commit message
  • descriptive commit message
  • amend the commit message
  • commit message convention
  • commitA saved snapshot of changes in a repository, with a short message that explains what was changed and why. Also used as a verb: to commit your changes.
  • version controlA system that records every change to a set of files over time, so a team can work on the same code, see who changed what and go back to earlier versions.
  • ticketA record in a tracking tool such as Jira that describes one piece of work, like a bug, task or feature, and shows who owns it and its status.
  • documentationWritten material that explains how software works and how to use, set up or change it, such as guides, API references and README files.

More terms: Version Control

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