Re: Why have a ChangeLog file if you already have commit messages?

[Thomas Vander Stichele <thomas apestaart org>]

On Sun, 2007-09-16 at 00:13 +0200, Jaap Haitsma wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Talking to Daniel "Cheese" Siegel we asked ourselves:
> Why do all GNOME projects have a ChangeLog file?
> Isn't it redundant when you just save a commit message.

Because they communicate at different levels.

I have yet to see a project that has clear, concise commit messages, and
all the commits are well-defined, atomic, and no screwups.

The number of commit messages that go "fixed stupid typo" or "I was
drunk when I commited this" make a commit message log unsuitable as a
candidate for a ChangeLog.

When I'm reading a ChangeLog, I want to know what changed in the
software overall; what changes the developers are making, and why they
are making them.  I don't want to read about every single small detail
they changed while making those changes.

When I'm reading a commit log, I typically figure out what the hell a
developer was thinking when he introduced a bug or did something silly.

Just my 2 cents,
Thomas


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