Subject: Re: bug#9847: [PATCH 3/3] maint: use gnulib's gitlog-to-changelog instead of a ChangeLog file.

From: Bob Friesenhahn <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2011 09:14:47 -0500 (CDT)

On Mon, 31 Oct 2011, Peter Rosin wrote:
>
> Sorry for the late response, but *all* relevant info from the ChangeLog is
> generally *not* included in the git commit message. E.g. commit 72266fce
> "docs: improve description of -no-undefined." where the mention of
> co-author Matěj Týč is thrown out the window by this change.

Loss of this sort of information is indeed a significant concern since 
the FSF "publishes" the software (with each FSF package being 
registered with the US copyright office) and the ChangeLog file is a 
formal part of that publication.  Submission of changesets into a 
shared repository is unlikely to constitute legal publication in most 
countries.  The FSF needs to keep track of every contributor in order 
to be able to defend the package's copyright status.

Bob
-- 
Bob Friesenhahn
[email-masked], http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/