Viewing your diff while writing your commits with git commit --verbose
I am a firm believer of the fact that Git history should be documentation for the reasoning behind why the code is as it is. As such, I take care to make my commits follow Chris Beams' commit guidelines, which usually involves writing the commit while reading the diff of what's changed, so I don't forget anything.
Manual git diffs
My common workflow for writing commit messages used to be along the lines of:
$ vim $file
$ git add -p
$ git diff --cached
$ git commit
This meant I would have fresh in my mind the changes that I had recently made, and therefore would be able to have the message accurately detail the why of the changes I made in a commit.
However, this wasn't great for large diffs, as I'd have to either remember the full diff and all the changes made, or switch between $EDITOR and diff.
Using vim-fugitive
Then, I discovered vim-fugitive which adds easy access to Git-specific information from Vim. This allowed me to run :Gdiff while editing a commit, which would open up the diff in a split.
Using git commit --verbose
However, as an even better way of doing this, I found I can take advantage of Git's commit --verbose mode, which prepopulates a commit message with the full diff, i.e.
Commit message goes here
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor
incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis
nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu
fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in
culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Part of #93.
# Please enter the commit message for your changes. Lines starting
# with '#' will be ignored, and an empty message aborts the commit.
# On branch master
# Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.
# Changes to be committed:
# new file: _drafts/git-commit-verbose.md
#
# ------------------------ >8 ------------------------
# Do not touch the line above.
# Everything below will be removed.
diff --git a/_drafts/git-commit-verbose.md b/_drafts/git-commit-verbose.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..03deabc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_drafts/git-commit-verbose.md
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+title: `git commit --verbose`
+description: Viewing your diff while writing your commits.
+categories: blogumentation
+tags: git commit shell
+---
+My common workflow for writing about a commit is either to do something like:
+
+```bash
+$ vim $file
+$ git add -p
+$ git diff --cached
+$ git commit
+```
+
+Alternatively, when using [vim-fugitive][vim-fugitive], while writing a commit, I can run `:Gdiff`.
+
+However, as an even better way of doing this, we can take advantage of Git's `git commit --verbose` mode, which prepopulates a commit message with the full diff, i.e.
+
+
+[vim-fugitive]: https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive
This means that I don't need any plugins, and can remain in my $EDITOR, as well as it being a fully supported configuration by Git, by running git config --global commit.verbose true.
In Summary
To see this article in action, check out the asciicast:
