Re: [setup] Makefile.am patches

[Eric Blake <eblake at redhat dot com>]

On 02/15/2015 07:35 AM, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> We're not going to skip writing ChangeLog entries.  If there is some
> automatism to write *correctly formatted* ChangeLog entries from the git
> commit message, then that method can and should be used.

Coreutils and several other GNU projects use such a mechanism; it is
called gitlog-to-changelog, a script maintained by gnulib:

http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=gnulib.git;a=blob;f=build-aux/gitlog-to-changelog

as long as the git commits are valid ChangeLog entries, then the
resulting ChangeLog is also valid; and if you make a mistake in the git
log, it is possible to do a followup commit that touches a file of
cleanup mappings to correct errors in the git history to turn it into
valid ChangeLog entries.  Here's a sample of coreutils' corrections:

http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=blob;f=build-aux/git-log-fix

> 
> In the past (and in the future), if ChangeLog entries were not written,
> this was only supposed to happen if they don't go along with code changes.

With the approach taken in GNU projects, you STILL have to write valid
ChangeLog entries, it's just that you maintain them as the git commit
instead of in a file named ChangeLog, so it's less hassle.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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