On [fill in the date here -- about a week from when this
announcement is made] we plan to change the procedure for
committing changes to the Emacs git repository, so that the
ChangeLog file in the Emacs distribution can be generated
automatically from git commit messages.  Although you'll still be
able to edit ChangeLog history by running 'make change-history'
and then committing changes to a new top-level file (initially
'ChangeLog.1'), most commits shouldn't need to change any
ChangeLog* files and this should simplify merging.

The suggested format for commit messages will be changed slightly:

 - File names should be relative to the top level, e.g.:

	Deactivate shifted region

	Do not silently extend an unhighlighted region;
	this can happen after a shift.
	* doc/emacs/mark.texi (Shift Selection): Document this.
	* lisp/window.el (handle-select-window):
	* src/frame.c (Fhandle_switch_frame, Fselected_frame):
	Deactivate the mark.
	Fixes: bug#19003

     (The actual commit message should not be indented.)

 - If the commit has authors other than yourself, the commit
   message should contain a separate line like the following:

	Co-authored-by: Joe Schmoe <j.schmoe@example.org>

 - If the commit is a tiny change that is exempt from copyright
   paperwork, the commit message should contain a separate line
   like the following:

	Copyright-paperwork-exempt: yes

 - If the commit message should not appear in generated
   ChangeLogs, its first line should start with "; ".

With the new approach there are multiple ways to format ChangeLog
entries as part of the process of creating a commit message:

 - If you use Emacs VC, you can create a top-level ChangeLog file,
   and update it with 'C-x 4 a' file as usual.  Do not register
   the ChangeLog file under git; instead, use 'C-c C-a' to insert
   its contents into into your *vc-log* buffer.

 - Alternatively, you can use the vc-dwim command to maintain
   commit messages.  When you create a source directory, run the
   shell command 'git-changelog-symlink-init' to create a symbolic
   link from ChangeLog to .git/c/ChangeLog.  Edit this ChangeLog
   via its symlink with Emacs commands like 'C-x 4 a', and commit
   the change using the shell command 'vc-dwim --commit'.  Type
   'vc-dwim --help' for more.

The above will all be documented in the files CONTRIBUTE (for
ordinary commits) and admin/notes/repo (for commits that edit
ChangeLog history files).

This change will be installed on the master branch.  Other
branches can adopt this change whenever convenient.  The emacs-24
branch can continue to use the old procedure, and changes to
ChangeLog files in emacs-24 can be discarded by hand when merging
to master.

Although this new style of maintenance is common in other GNU
projects, Emacs has its own special needs and most likely there
will be glitches after the transition.  We will do our best to
straighten out these problems as they occur.