GNU bug report logs - #21998
Run 'make change-history' on release branch

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From: Dmitry Gutov <dgutov <at> yandex.ru>
To: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>, Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 21998 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, John Wiegley <johnw <at> gnu.org>
Subject: bug#21998: Run 'make change-history' on release branch
Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2016 20:02:30 +0200

On 03/06/2016 11:47 AM, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen wrote:

> I agree, and I think we should ditch the ChangeLogs.  I think the
> ChangeLog "style" encourages less informative commit log messages.  The
> normal, free-form commit style encourages people explaining, in their
> own words, why they do changes, and what they hope to achieve with
> them.

Whether it's "less" or "more", depends on what one is comparing to. I 
rather feel it establishes a quality baseline, and by being required to 
mention every change, you're encouraged to document them all at least 
somehow. And you can still prepend the whole thing with a free-form 
explanation, if it's needed.

So while the ChangeLog files can go, I'd rather we keep to that style in 
the commit messages. At least until we switch to some other well-defined 
standard.

> The ChangeLog style, on the other hand, pretty much uselessly lists all
> files and functions affected, and after getting all that formalism in
> place, many people don't have more stamina left than to add "Fix bug".  :-)

IME, except for trivial changes, writing a log entry takes comparatively 
little time compared to the rest (like designing and writing the code). 
Or maybe I'm just slow.

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