Re: Mistakes in commit log messages

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2023 17:20:13 +0000
> Cc: jporterbugs@gmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> From: Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>
> 
> > > +  /^\* [a-zA-Z0-9_.~#-]/ {
> > > +    nfiles++
> > > +    if ((rc = (getline x < $2)) < 0) {
> > > +      status = 1
> > > +      print "File " $2 " cannot be read: [" ERRNO "]"
> 
> > The error message should explicitly mention an error in the file name
> > or its leading directories, at least if ERRNO indicates the file does
> > not exist.  "File FOO cannot be read is too "technical" and doesn't
> > explain what we are checking.
> 
> You mean something like:
> 
>     print "Error in file or directory name " $2 " [" ERRNO "]"
> 
> ?

I mean something like

  "File " $2 " does not exist; did you make a mistake in its name?"

> I'm beginning to get a bit concerned about what happens after a file
> has been removed from git, or renamed.

This needs to be detected and not flagged as an error.

> Maybe I could add another line suggesting how to bypass the checks
> in commit-msg.  What do you think?

No, I think we shouldn't make it easy for people to bypass the test,
if we want this to be useful.