Re: April 7 cutover for generating ChangeLog automatically

[Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>]

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On 03/31/2015 07:07 AM, Nicolas Petton wrote:
> Does it mean that the ChangeLog files won't be updated anymore or that
> they will be updated only from time to time (like right before a release
> or something like that)?

The latter.  The ChangeLog history files (ChangeLog.1, etc.) will be 
updated only when someone feels like updating them, either by editing 
them manually and committing the changes, or by running 'make 
change-history'.  'make change-history' will prepend copies of recent 
commit messages to ChangeLog.1, thus causing those commit messages to no 
longer be considered "recent".

There will be only one file called 'ChangeLog', at the top level. You 
can generate it automatically from recent commit messages by running 
'make ChangeLog', but intent is that it is an output file and is not 
committed to the repository.  (Unlike 'make change-history', 'make 
ChangeLog' doesn't cause the commits to be considered "recent".)  'make 
dist' uses 'make ChangeLog' to create the ChangeLog file that is put 
into the tarball.

> I think that admin/make-tarball.txt will have to be updated.
Yes, that's part of the patch proposed in Bug#19113.  Please see:

http://bugs.gnu.org/19113#119

I'm attaching the part that updates make-tarball.txt.

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diff --git a/admin/make-tarball.txt b/admin/make-tarball.txt
index 8f8b031..2fe3b69 100644
--- a/admin/make-tarball.txt
+++ b/admin/make-tarball.txt
@@ -31,28 +31,30 @@ General steps (for each step, check for possible errors):
       M-x authors RET
 
     If there is an "*Authors Errors*" buffer, address the issues.
-    If there was a ChangeLog typo, fix it.  If a file was deleted or
-    renamed, consider adding an appropriate entry to authors-ignored-files,
+    If there was a ChangeLog typo, run "make change-history" and then
+    fix ChangeLog.1.  If a file was deleted or renamed, consider
+    adding an appropriate entry to authors-ignored-files,
     authors-valid-file-names, or authors-renamed-files-alist.
 
     If necessary, repeat M-x authors after making those changes.
     Save the "*Authors*" buffer as etc/AUTHORS.
     Check the diff looks reasonable.  Maybe add entries to
     authors-ambiguous-files or authors-aliases, and repeat.
-    Commit any fixes to ChangeLogs or authors.el.
+    Commit any fixes to authors.el.
 
 3.  Set the version number (M-x load-file RET admin/admin.el RET, then
     M-x set-version RET).  For a release, add released ChangeLog
-    entries (M-x add-release-logs RET).
+    entries (create a ChangeLog symlink a la vc-dwim, then run M-x
+    add-release-logs RET, then run the shell command 'vc-dwim --commit').
 
     For a pretest, start at version .90.  After .99, use .990 (so that
     it sorts).
 
     The final pretest should be a release candidate.  Set the version
     number to that of the actual release.  Pick a date about a week
-    from now when you intend to make the release.  Use M-x add-release-logs
-    to add the ChangeLog entries for that date to the tar file (but
-    not yet to the repository).  Name the tar file as
+    from now when you intend to make the release.  Use vc-dwim and
+    M-x add-release-logs as described above to add the ChangeLog
+    entries for that date to the tar file.  Name the tar file as
     emacs-XX.Y-rc1.tar.  If all goes well in the following week, you
     can simply rename the file and use it for the actual release.