Is there any way to incrementally build commit messages in git?

Question

I\'m wondering if it is possible to build git commit messages incrementally, documenting what I\'m doing as I make code changes:

1. Check out and begin work

Answer 1

git commit can take a commit message from a file using the -F option. So, you can do something like this:

# Do some work
$ echo 'Did some work' > commit-msg.txt
# Do some more work
$ echo 'Did some more work' >> commit-msg.txt
$ git commit -F commit-msg.txt

Answer 2

If you really want to do it like this (I don't recommend you to do it that way though), then try this:

1. Check out and begin work
2. Make some code changes
3. git commit
4. Make some further code changes
5. git commit --amend
6. Repeat 4 & 5
7. git commit --amend --reset-author to further reset the timestamp

Answer 3

You are supposed to do a commit for every small change you do that requires a message. This is especially easy with a distributed versioning system like git that you are using.

1. Check out and begin work
2. Make a code change
3. Enter commit message and commit
4. Repeat 2 and 3
5. Push updates

And if you for some reason dislike this pattern and want to do the way you described, just use notepad and append to your message after coding a while and then copy paste it when commiting.