To clarify, I'm not arguing against commit message bodies entirely. They're valuable and I write them regularly. Not for every change, but lots - maybe sixty -

To clarify, I'm not arguing against commit message bodies entirely. They're valuable and I write them regularly. Not for every change, but lots - maybe sixty - eighty percent. I'm just saying that huge, multi-paragraph essays are often a sign you're putting information in the wrong place. I should also add I'm a big believer in small, focused commits - I fairly often will have a branch that has a few hundred lines changed and twenty commits. You make a good point about the issue tracker dying - I've worried about that but have yet to encounter it in practice. Reducing the impact of such an event is probably a good reason to denormalize a little there.