bug#19113: Generate a ChangeLog file from commit logs

[Paul Eggert]

On 11/26/2014 07:12 AM, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> Why emacs-24?

Because it'd be a pain to deal with the development and master branches 
using different policies for ChangeLogs.  If emacs-24 stuck to the old 
policy and master used the new one, not only would developers have to 
remember which policy to use with which branch, the merging procedure 
would be complicated by the need to merge ChangeLogs developed in the 
old policy with the automatically-generated ChangeLogs of the new. There 
would inevitably be hassles with dropped logs and duplicates and so 
forth.  We have enough problems already with the merge procedure (as far 
as I can tell, it's never been done since the switch to git). So it'd be 
much better to change both branches at once, assuming emacs-24 is still 
active.

As a side benefit, I'm volunteering to do the first merge from emacs-24 
to master, which would be useful experience for us all.

> Patch 3 sounds like a bad idea.

OK, let's leave it out.

> I prefer dropping ChangeLog files from the VCS. But the benefits are 
> likely not high enough to justify alienating other core maintainers, 
> so we should only go ahead if we can get their explicit agreement first.

Please feel free to ask them.  In the long run it'd less work for 
everybody if we did the switch, and I'm volunteering to do the legwork.  
A request from you would carry more weight than one from me.