as of git-annex version 3.20110719, all git-annex commits only contain the word "update" as a commit message. given that the contents of the commit are pretty non-descriptive (SHA1 hashes for file names, uuids for repository names), i suggest to have more descriptive commit messages, as shown here:

/mnt/usb_disk/photos/2011$ git annex get
/mnt/usb_disk/photos/2011$ git show git-annex
[...]
usb-disk-photos: get 2011

* 10 files retrieved from 2 sources (9 from local-harddisk, 1 from my-server)
* 120 files were already present
* 2 files could not be retrieved
/mnt/usb_disk/photos/2011$ cd ~/photos/2011/07
~/photos/2011/07$ git copy --to my-server
~/photos/2011/07$ git show git-annex
[...]
local-harddisk: copy 2011/07 to my-server

* 20 files pushed
~/photos/2011/07$

in my opinion, the messages should at least contain

  • what command was used
  • in which repository they were executed
  • which files or directories they affected (not necessarily all files, but what was given on command line or implicitly from the working directory)

--chrysn

The implementation of the git-annex branch precludes more descriptive commit messages, since a single commit can include changes that were previously staged to the branch's index file, or spooled to its journal by other git-annex commands (either concurrently running or interrupted commands, or even changes needed to automatically merge other git-annex branches).

It would be possible to make it less verbose, with an empty commit message. :) --Joey

Closing as this is literally impossible to do without making git-annex worse. done --Joey

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