Re: [PATCH] Path conversion documentation

[Charles Wilson]

On 9/2/2010 3:05 AM, Gary V. Vaughan wrote:
> On 2 Sep 2010, at 12:40, Charles Wilson wrote:
>> 'Course, I notice that I screwed up the date in the ChangeLog.  Could
>> the next person to commit a change to that file, please fix it?
>>
>> -2010-09-31 ...
>> +2010-09-01 ...
> 
> Might be unnecessary...

Well, we aren't yet using your use-gnulib branch, and right now the
ChangeLog contains an inaccurate date.  So, since I'm *sure* somebody is
going to commit something to master between now and the release...

> 
> In my use-gnulib branch, I'm wondering whether to incorporate 
> gitlog-to-changelog, and have it generate the current year's ChangeLog at 
> distribution time.  However the first few months of the year don't have 
> suitable gitlog's to convert nicely.  I can think of a few options:
> 
>         i) wait until next year
>        ii) post process the output of gitlog-to-changelog for now

IF we want to use gitlog to create the ChangeLog, then either of these
is fine with me.  However, see below.

>       iii) fix the gitlog entries -- if that's even viable?

I don't think (iii) will work. You can play all sorts of games with
filter-branch, but...I managed to screw up three different git clones
before I gave that up as a bad idea (I was trying to fix the author of a
commit that was not the final entry).

> Comments?

It does seem like gitlog and ChangeLog duplicate the same info, so it
would definitely be nice to reduce dvlpr workload.  However, I have
noticed that you /just can't/ do the following -- which is actually
required by the GCS:

Two people worked on a single patch, or someone submitted it, and then
one of the people with commit access modified the patch slightly.  The
GCS says you should do this, in the ChangeLog:

===========================================
2010-09-02  John Original Submitter  <...>
            Steve Committer Rewrite  <...>   <<<=== can't do this

* file (func): comment

Signed-off-by: Steve Committer Rewrite  <...>
===========================================

Also, for trivial commits without a copyright assignment, the GCS says
you should do this:

===========================================
2010-09-02  Sally No Assignment  <...> (tiny change)

* file (func): comment

Signed-off-by: Mark Committer <...>
===========================================

Now, MAYBE the committer can do that by munging the --author='...'; I've
never tried and I'm not sure how thoroughly git checks the --author
argument.

--
Chuck