Troy Hunt has written a fantastic blog post, the 10 commandments of good source control management, covering some key bits of best practice when it comes to using version control tools.

The most chuckle-worthy is command #5, “Write every commit message like the next person who reads it is an axe-wielding maniac who knows where you live.” I chuckled to myself when reading that, before remembering that all too often that axe-wielding murderer is me three months down the line, wondering why I didn’t write a better commit message so that I’d remember what on earth it was I did! Don’t forget that comments and commit messages are just as much for your benefit as your colleagues, so it will pay to put the extra 5 minutes of effort in to write a detailed and meaningful message. If you’re not doing this, you might as well just grab any old message from whatthecommit.com for all the good it’ll do you further down the line

While I can’t claim I’ve always obeyed these commandments, I think the only one I’m failing on these days is that the various databases I work with aren’t being source-controlled, but that’s on my radar to sort out over the next couple of months.