DEV Community

Cover image for If You Think YOUR Commit Messages Are Bad, Just Wait…
Sylwia Laskowska
Sylwia Laskowska

Posted on

If You Think YOUR Commit Messages Are Bad, Just Wait…

Lately it’s been all conferences, front-end celebrities, and very serious topics. And honestly? I’m tired…
Tired of ambitious topics - not of blogging! 😄

It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon, nothing’s happening.
So if you somehow wandered in here, enjoy this small collection of the dumbest / funniest commit messages I remember from my projects.


📝 Repeated “Fixes”™

"fix"
"fix"
"fix-final"
"ok final fix"
"fix final final"
"fixed previous fix"
⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini ⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini

This is exactly what my DevOps’ commits looked like whenever he had to “quickly install something” into the code.
Luckily he always squashed later 😂


🛐 “Did the needful”

"did the needful"
⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini ⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini

My teammate’s classic message for the pointless “do it right now” tasks the manager dropped on us. 🙏


🔧 Build-Struggle Chronicles

"attempt to fix the build"
"ok, fix the build"
⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini ⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini

Let’s be honest… there were probably more attempts 😅


🔙 “Rollback the rollback”

"rollback the rollback"
⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini ⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini

Who among us hasn’t rollbacked a rollback? 🤷‍♂️


⚡ Demo-Driven Development™

"quick fix before the demo, forgive me"
⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini ⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini

Peak engineering culture. Peak survival instinct. 🌪️


🙏 “please work”

"please work"
⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini ⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini

Who hasn’t written this one, hoping the code will show mercy? 🥲


😵 “too tired to explain”

"too tired to explain"
⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini ⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini

A universal Friday-at-8-PM commit message.


🫣 The Pre-ESLint Era

"added a coma, now works fine"
⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini ⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini

One comma to rule them all.


🧨 “some minor fixes”

"some minor fixes"
⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini ⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini

100 lines changed.
Zero regrets. 😇


💬 Your turn!

Do you remember similar gems from your own projects?
Share them — let’s build the ultimate Hall of Fame of Terrible Commit Messages 😎

Top comments (42)

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
adamthedeveloper profile image
Adam - The Developer ✨ • Edited

Or my favorite is the messages when they first push something:

  • “ initial commit “
  • “ initial “
  • “ init “
  • “ first commit “

🤣🤣

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
uratmangun profile image
uratmangun

this is me before ai lol now im just generate it with emoji

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
xwero profile image
david duymelinck • Edited

I'm guilty.

You could write a book worth of a text to express that initial commit. I should start using 'See the README.md'

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

No worries, we’re all guilty 😂
Honestly, ‘See the README.md’ might be the cleanest initial commit message I’ve ever heard.

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini Thread
 
xwero profile image
david duymelinck

If it contains enough information, it is valid. But we are not the best at documenting our code.

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini Thread
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

Agreed! Enough information is definitely the goal - but let’s be honest, documenting code isn’t exactly our strongest hobby 😅

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
vaticnz profile image
Rich Jeffries

Succinct and Accurate?! Guilty lol

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

If being succinct and accurate is wrong, I don’t wanna be right 😂

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

Hahaha yes, especially when it’s the first and the last commit in the whole repo xD

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
anchildress1 profile image
Ashley Childress • Edited

Mine were always something like

  • "welp! THAT didn't work"
  • "scroll up. there's more"
  • "guess we'll try it this way"
  • "nope!"
  • "last one..."
  • "and I lied"

🤣🤣 I claimed the worst committer award years ago!

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

OMG I’m crying 😂
These are elite commit messages - especially ‘last one…’ followed by ‘and I lied’.
That’s basically the universal developer cycle 😭💛

Honestly, I think you and I could easily co-own the ‘worst committer’ trophy 😂🔥

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
lingana profile image
Torsten Brieskorn • Edited

now it is a good day 😄

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
ingosteinke profile image
Ingo Steinke, web developer

I remember using a f****ng swear word in a commit message once, and only once, to find out there was an automated bot service quoting that kind of commits on social media with random images of toilets. 😲🚽🤣

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

HAHA no way 😂🚽
A single swear in a commit and suddenly you’re featured in ‘Toilets Weekly’ thanks to an automated bot.
That’s legendary!

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
alifar profile image
Ali Farhat

😂😂

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
pascal_cescato_692b7a8a20 profile image
Pascal CESCATO

initial commit and some minor fixes are by far my favorites… some kind of TL;DR for code.

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

Absolutely! Those two are the ultimate TL;DR of coding 😂
And as always - love seeing your comments, Pascal!

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
codemouse92 profile image
Jason C. McDonald • Edited

My favorite from the repository at work...

i will kill you

That's it. That's the commit message.

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

OMG 😂 the truest expression of a dev losing an argument with their code.

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
louis7 profile image
Louis Liu

I usually follow conventional commit rules, but sometimes I'll write some beautiful meaningless messages like:

fix: cannot upload file issue
⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini ⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini

I hope I won't have to spend time revisiting this commit again.

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

Haha I 100% feel this - we all try to follow the rules, but those ‘beautifully meaningless’ commits sneak in every now and then 😄
And yes, fingers crossed that future-you never has to debug that one again 😂

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
shemith_mohanan_6361bb8a2 profile image
shemith mohanan

These are painfully relatable 😂
My personal favorites from past projects were:
“why does this even work??” and “I’ll fix this later” (never fixed).
Funny how commit history becomes the real documentary of a developer’s mental state. Great post!

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

Hahaha yes, exactly! ‘Why does this even work??’ is such a universal dev scream 😅
And ‘I’ll fix this later’… the most famous lie in our entire profession 😂

You’re so right - commit history really is a documentary of our mental state.
Thanks for the kind words! 💛

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
lucabennett profile image
Luca Bennett

Good to know everything is now fully compatible with the M1 architecture. I’ve been holding off on updating Dreamweaver because of extension issues, so this is really helpful. Also appreciate the heads-up about reinstalling everything for the 2021 version, saves a lot of confusion. Wappler sounds interesting too, might give it a try.

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
uratmangun profile image
uratmangun

im using gitbutler and suddenly all the commit message is beautiful also really easy for newbie to git

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
jeremysawesome profile image
Jeremiah Smith

I've been there - like what more can you say "hotfix", "make it work", etc...

Recently I've been using Gitmoji recently for all my commits.
And - I actually think my commit messages are better now!

⭐ Football Update: sylwia lask/if you think your commit messages are bad just wait fgk - Pertandingan Hari Ini
 
sylwia-lask profile image
Sylwia Laskowska

Haha totally! At some point all commits become ‘pls work’ variations 😅
And yes - Gitmoji is SUCH an upgrade. It makes everything clearer and way more fun!

Some comments may only be visible to logged-in visitors. Sign in to view all comments.