Commit messages

[Ralf Corsepius]

On 01/24/2012 10:52 AM, Sebastian Huber wrote:
> On 01/24/2012 10:32 AM, Ralf Corsepius wrote:
>> On 01/24/2012 10:17 AM, Sebastian Huber wrote:
>>> On 01/23/2012 11:08 PM, Joel Sherrill wrote:
>>>> On 01/23/2012 02:31 AM, Sebastian Huber wrote:
>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>
>>>>> I think we should write down (or copy from somewhere else) some
>>>>> standard for
>>>>> the commit messages. How to format it and what to put in it. Maybe
>>>>> also some
>>>>> standard phrases.
>>>>>
>>>> I was hoping someone else would post first but here is what I
>>>> personally would like to see.
>>>>
>>>> I think ChangeLog's need to continue to exist. They are part
>>>> of the GNU Coding Standard and useful to those getting releases.
>>>
>>> I guess the GNU Coding Standard needs an update.
>>
>> Well, with all due respect, I think some people don't have sufficient
>> experience to understand why the GCS says so.
>>
>> Ralf
>
> Sorry, the standard is up to date. I just read the paragraph and it says:
>
> http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#Change-Logs
>
> "Another alternative is to record change log information with a version
> control system such as RCS or CVS. This can be converted automatically
> to a ‘ChangeLog’ file using rcs2log; in Emacs, the command C-x v a
> (vc-update-change-log) does the job."

Now guess why hardly anybody has used automated changelogs.

They had existed with CVS and svn as well.

It's quite simple: Automated changelogs are nice in small projects 
(where actually nobody cares about them) but do not meet many larger 
projects's demands and are a true PITA to use.

Ralf