Re: [PATCH] x86_64 ia32 syscall restart fix

From: Linus Torvalds
Date: Fri Feb 29 2008 - 18:20:00 EST




On Fri, 29 Feb 2008, Roland McGrath wrote:
>
> I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at being harangued for making my log
> entries too informative.

No, no, no. We want them long and informative.

The only thing I asked for was that text should have the visual separation
also between different paragraphs.

I at no point asked you to make the thing shorter, I asked you to split it
up and MAKE IT VISUALLY LONGER by adding the proper vertical whitespace
(which is how we do paragraphs).

> If what you want is formulaic log text that always puts blank lines in
> between bug description, change description, and change justification, I
> can do that. If there is any place that documents the conventions you
> want in log entries, I've overlooked it.

It's _purely_ an issue of overly long paragraphs, not about the language
or any "formulaic" crap.

The fact is, paragraphs help make things more readable.

What I find funny is how this email you just wrote actually has *much*
shorter paragraphs than the changelog entry I replied to.

Go back and look. The explanation I objected to was a single paragraph, 15
lines long. That's about two thirds of the screen with no break.

And then, in the email reply you just sent (the one I'm replying to here),
the longest one was nine lines and most were four or six lines, with one
being three lines. Why? Because it's simply MORE READABLE.

I didn't ask you to write denser or less readable log messages, I asked
for exactly the reverse. So I don't understand why you then made your
reply be a rant about how you could make less explanatory changelog
messages.

Linus
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