Today I learned that there are two main ways to provide a commit message in Git:

1. -m <msg> or --message=<msg>: This is the most common way, where you provide the message directly on the command line. You can use multiple -m options, and their values will be concatenated as separate paragraphs.
2. -F <file> or --file=<file>: This option allows you to take the commit message from a given file. If you use - as the filename, the message is read from the standard input. This is particularly useful for multi-line messages as it avoids potential issues with shell character escaping.

It’s important to note that the -m and -F options are mutually exclusive. You can only use one of them for a single commit.

✱ Example using -F

1. Create a file named commit-message.txt:

   1
   feat: Add new login feature
   2
   
   3
   This commit introduces a new login system with email and password authentication.
   4
   It also includes basic validation and error handling.

2. Use the file in your commit command:

   git commit -F commit-message.txt