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Be verbose.  Your commit message should tell the story of your work.  People read our commit logs and understanding what changed (and why) is very helpful.  

Wording of the Commit Message

The commit message should follow imperative style [1]. The wording should fit this phrasing "If I apply this commit, then it will..." for any of the git commits.

Use this wording:

GEODE-nn: Fix failing CompositePropertySourceTest

Instead of:

• GEODE-nn: Fixing failing CompositePropertySourceTest
• GEODE-nn: Fixed failing CompositePropertySourceTest
• GEODE-nn: failing CompositePropertySourceTest
• GEODE-nn: polishing stuff
• GEODE-nn: CompositePropertySourceTest is failing intermittently
  

[1] How to write a Git commit message.