changelog-merge plugin and edited ChangeLog entries

changelog-merge plugin and edited ChangeLog entries

[Eli Zaretskii]

admin/notes/bzr has this passage regarding changelog-merge:

    Sigh.  This plugin has a drawback.  People often like to edit older
    ChangeLog entries, not at the head of the file.  Frequently they do
    this in the same commit as making new entries.  Using this plugin
    will merge ALL changed entries (including older ones) to the top of
    the destination file.

AFAIK, the number of people doing that is very small, so we could ask
them not to.

Regardless, would it be a good idea to ask for a modification of the
plugin, whereby it would error out in such cases, either by default or
under some option?

Re: changelog-merge plugin and edited ChangeLog entries

[Miles Bader]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> admin/notes/bzr has this passage regarding changelog-merge:
>
>     Sigh.  This plugin has a drawback.  People often like to edit older
>     ChangeLog entries, not at the head of the file.  Frequently they do
>     this in the same commit as making new entries.  Using this plugin
>     will merge ALL changed entries (including older ones) to the top of
>     the destination file.
>
> AFAIK, the number of people doing that is very small, so we could ask
> them not to.
>
> Regardless, would it be a good idea to ask for a modification of the
> plugin, whereby it would error out in such cases, either by default or
> under some option?

The gnulib "git-merge-changelog" merge program[*] is reported to
handle this case correctly, and supposedly can be used with either git
or bzr (or hg).

-Miles


[*] To build, install the "gnulib-tool" program, and do:

   gnulib-tool --create-testdir --dir=XXX git-merge-changelog
   cd XXX
   ./configure
   make
   ...etc

Look at the header comments in the program source
(gllib/git-merge-changelog.c) for instructions on how to use it with bzr...

-- 
Ich bin ein Virus. Mach' mit und kopiere mich in Deine .signature.

Re: changelog-merge plugin and edited ChangeLog entries

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>
> Cc: Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org>,  emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2011 17:45:05 +0900
> 
> The gnulib "git-merge-changelog" merge program[*] is reported to
> handle this case correctly, and supposedly can be used with either git
> or bzr (or hg).

I know.  But (a) it's a pain to build it on Windows, and (b) it can be
used with bzr only as an external merge tool, which means you cannot
just say "bzr merge ...", because you need a special switch to the
merge command, just for ChangeLog files.

Re: changelog-merge plugin and edited ChangeLog entries

[Stefan Monnier]

> The gnulib "git-merge-changelog" merge program[*] is reported to
> handle this case correctly, and supposedly can be used with either git
> or bzr (or hg).

I haven't had too many problems related to this with change-log-mode's
change-log-resolve-conflict either.


        Stefan

Re: changelog-merge plugin and edited ChangeLog entries

[Miles Bader]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:
>> The gnulib "git-merge-changelog" merge program[*] is reported to
>> handle this case correctly, and supposedly can be used with either git
>> or bzr (or hg).
>
> I haven't had too many problems related to this with change-log-mode's
> change-log-resolve-conflict either.

The nice thing about git-merge-changelog though is that it will handle
automatically for bulk merges (though apparently not for bzr), without
the user needing to get involved at all.

-Miles

-- 
XML is like violence.  If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not
using enough of it.

Re: changelog-merge plugin and edited ChangeLog entries

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>
> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>,  emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2011 07:52:06 +0900
> 
> Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:
> >> The gnulib "git-merge-changelog" merge program[*] is reported to
> >> handle this case correctly, and supposedly can be used with either git
> >> or bzr (or hg).
> >
> > I haven't had too many problems related to this with change-log-mode's
> > change-log-resolve-conflict either.
> 
> The nice thing about git-merge-changelog though is that it will handle
> automatically for bulk merges (though apparently not for bzr), without
> the user needing to get involved at all.

Yea, yea, and git is better than bzr, and we should destroy
Carthage...

Re: changelog-merge plugin and edited ChangeLog entries

[Miles Bader]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
>> > I haven't had too many problems related to this with change-log-mode's
>> > change-log-resolve-conflict either.
>> 
>> The nice thing about git-merge-changelog though is that it will handle
>> automatically for bulk merges (though apparently not for bzr), without
>> the user needing to get involved at all.
>
> Yea, yea, and git is better than bzr, and we should destroy
> Carthage...

Huh?  I wasn't trying to be snide...

-miles

-- 
History, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are
brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.

Re: changelog-merge plugin and edited ChangeLog entries

[Glenn Morris]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:

> Regardless, would it be a good idea to ask for a modification of the
> plugin, whereby it would error out in such cases, either by default or
> under some option?

I already reported it. Feel free to add comments.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/bzr-changelog-merge/+bug/723968