Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:

> Nicolas Petton wrote:
>
>> Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:
>>
>>>> I suspect the main problem is going be that was previously eg "files.el"
>>>> in the ChangeLog is now "lisp/files.el", which is going to make
>>>> authors.el think it refers to two separate files.
>>
>> I updated etc/AUTHORS last week with authors.el, and double-checked
>> this, but I couldn't find any issue with the generated file.
>
> I'm surprised, but maybe authors-canonical-file-name means it works
> itself out? If a test with a dummy tree with only two separate
> ChangeLogs, one in lisp/ containing an entry for "files.el", and
> one in top-level with an entry for "lisp/files.el", results in an
> AUTHORS file with just a single changed file, then maybe it all Just
> Works...

It seems to be the case, for instance, in lisp/ChangeLog.17 contains:

    2015-04-05  Pete Williamson  <petewil@chromium.org>  (tiny-change)
    
    	Fix .emacs and .emacs.d/init file recursion problem for NaCl
    	* files.el (file-truename): Add NaCl to the exception list ms-dos uses.

and ChangeLog also has many references to lisp/files.el, like the
following one:

    2016-01-16  Artur Malabarba  <bruce.connor.am@gmail.com>

	* lisp/files.el (dir-locals--all-files): Respect absolute file-names

	* lisp/help-fns.el (describe-variable): Fix a left-over parenthesis


The resulting etc/AUTHORS file contains the following entries:

    Artur Malabarba: wrote character-fold-tests.el faces-tests.el
      isearch-tests.el let-alist.el simple-test.el sort-tests.el
      tabulated-list-test.el
    and changed package.el isearch.el character-fold.el files.el
      tabulated-list.el package-test.el faces.el files-x.el menu-bar.el
      replace.el align.el bytecomp.el help-fns.el cl-lib-tests.el custom.el
      custom.texi map.el simple.el subr-tests.el variables.texi bindings.el
      and 37 other files

   [...]
   
    Pete Williamson: changed configure.ac files.el leim/Makefile.in
      lib-src/Makefile.in lisp/Makefile.in

Nico