Re: Is it time to drop ChangeLogs?

[Karl Fogel]

Dmitry Gutov <address@hidden> writes:
>On 03/07/2016 11:43 PM, Karl Fogel wrote:
>> Let's please take it for granted that everyone who's suggesting to
>> get rid of ChangeLog files is also assuming that we would, of
>> course, use the same conventions for writing git commit messages
>> that we would use for writing ChangeLog entries.  (As far as I can
>> tell, everyone who wants to get rid of ChangeLog files has either
>> expressed that assumption explicitly or implied it pretty clearly.
>> )
>
>Not so. Many messages in this thread are saying different.

I looked again -- who are these "many"?  I don't see any messages from someone 
who both advocates that we get rid of ChangeLogs *and* suggests that we should 
not use the same format for commit messages as we currently do for ChangeLogs.  
(Andy Moreton suggested something about how we could have improved standards 
about what we put in a change description in general, but that's different and 
orthogonal to this discussion.)

Please let me know if I missed a post, though.

>A ChangeLog entry has a well-defined format. It can also start with a
>free-form description. Whether the latter is a part of it or not, is
>not 100% important. Point is, it is a distinct entity, and I can refer
>to it.

A commit message is a distinct entity, and you can refer to it.

>The high-level description may also come separately, in a message to
>the bug tracker or the mailing list. That one may go into more detail.

Well, one can just include that in the commit message.  My point is just that 
if it's appropriate for a ChangeLog entry, then it's appropriate for a commit 
message, and vice versa.  I mean, at least for my commits, the former have 
always just been a literal copy of the latter, even when doing it manually :-).

Best regards,
-Karl