back to xoc3.io

2026-08-05 - git commits without messages

I've had a little git commit trick since around June 2023, that I haven't seen anyone else use, so I should share.

The trick is to write git commits with empty messages. Git supports writing commits without any messages via a commandline flag:

git commit --allow-empty-message -m ""

My two git commit shell aliases look like this:

gc () {
  git add --all
  git commit --allow-empty-message -m ""
}

gcm () {
  git add --all
  git commit
}

90% of the time when I am making git commits, it is to save progress or make a small change that explains itself.

I don't know why I was trained to write git commits with every commit before.

Anyways, for the past 3 years I just type `gc` to commit and occasionally if I want to leave a commit message, I type `gcm`.

Not sure what inspired me to write this today, but hope it helps someone.