Re: [bug-patch] [PATCH 1/2] do not version-control ChangeLog; instead, generate it

[Jim Meyering]

Andreas Gruenbacher wrote:
>> Are you open to the idea of not version-controlling ChangeLog?
>
> Yes, definitely.

Thanks.

>> [...]
>> I've included two change sets below.  The first is for ChangeLogs, as
>> described.  The second is to update to the latest gnulib, since without
>> that, I get warnings (fixed long ago in gnulib) when running autoconf.
>
> Can you push this?

Sure.  Done.

> Should your vc-dwim recommendations go into README-hacking?

Good idea.
coreutils' README-hacking mentions that,
so I've sync'd a few changes from there.
How about this?

[I've deliberately not updated copyright year lists;
 I have a patch to update all of those at once. ]

>From 7d41c04e7b98f360b52b3cb77b71860183c44042 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jim Meyering <address@hidden>
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:39:22 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] doc: update README-hacking

* README-hacking: Update from coreutils, including mention of
how to use vc-dwim to git-commit efficiently and safely using
a non-VC'd ChangeLog file.
---
 README-hacking |   64 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------
 1 files changed, 51 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README-hacking b/README-hacking
index 8928ab0..659a7a5 100644
--- a/README-hacking
+++ b/README-hacking
@@ -22,32 +22,70 @@ tools we depend upon, including:
 Valgrind <http://valgrind.org/> is also highly recommended, if
 Valgrind supports your architecture.

-Only building the initial full source tree will be a bit painful.
-Later, a plain `git pull && make' should be sufficient.
+While building from a just-cloned source tree may require installing a
+few prerequisites, later, a plain `git pull && make' should be sufficient.

-* First checkout
+* First GIT checkout

-Obviously, if you are reading these notes, you did manage to check out
-this package from CVS.  The next step is to get other files needed to
-build, which are extracted from other source packages:
+You can get a copy of the source repository like this:

-       $ ./bootstrap
+        $ git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/patch
+        $ cd patch
+
+As an optional step, if you already have a copy of the gnulib git
+repository on your hard drive, then you can use it as a reference to
+reduce download time and disk space requirements:
+
+        $ export GNULIB_SRCDIR=/path/to/gnulib
+
+The next step is to get and check other files needed to build,
+which are extracted from other source packages:
+
+        $ ./bootstrap
+
+To use the most-recent gnulib (as opposed to the gnulib version that
+the package last synchronized to), do this next:
+
+        $ git submodule foreach git pull origin master
+        $ git commit -m 'build: update gnulib submodule to latest' gnulib

 And there you are!  Just

-       $ ./configure
-       $ make
-       $ make check
+        $ ./configure --quiet
+        $ make
+        $ make check

 At this point, there should be no difference between your local copy,
-and the master:
+and the GIT master copy:

-       $ git status
+        $ git diff

-should show no difference.
+should output no difference.

 Enjoy!

+* Submitting patches
+
+If you develop a fix or a new feature, please send it to the
+appropriate bug-reporting address as reported by the --help option of
+each program.  One way to do this is to use vc-dwim
+<http://www.gnu.org/software/vc-dwim/>), as follows.
+
+  Run the command "vc-dwim --help", copy its definition of the
+  "git-changelog-symlink-init" function into your shell, and then run
+  this function at the top-level directory of the package.
+
+  Edit the ChangeLog file that this command creates, creating a
+  properly-formatted entry according to the GNU coding standards
+  <http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Change-Logs.html>.
+
+  Run the command "vc-dwim" and make sure its output looks good.
+
+  Run "vc-dwim --commit".
+
+  Run the command "git format-patch --stdout -1", and email its output
+  in, using the output's subject line.
+
 -----

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