From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 21109 invoked by alias); 3 Dec 2007 20:08:01 -0000 Received: (qmail 21001 invoked by uid 22791); 3 Dec 2007 20:08:00 -0000 X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from hosted01.westnet.com.au (HELO hosted01.westnet.com.au) (203.10.1.211) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.31) with ESMTP; Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:07:48 +0000 Received: from hosted01.westnet.com.au (hosted01.westnet.com.au [127.0.0.1]) by hosted01.westnet.com.au (Postfix) with SMTP id 903A93D9533; Tue, 4 Dec 2007 05:07:44 +0900 (WST) Received: from [192.168.1.103] (dsl-124-150-103-65.vic.westnet.com.au [124.150.103.65]) by hosted01.westnet.com.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id C19663D9BA7; Tue, 4 Dec 2007 05:07:39 +0900 (WST) Subject: Re: Rant about ChangeLog entries and commit messages From: Tim Josling Reply-To: tejgcc@westnet.com.au To: Diego Novillo , gcc@gcc.gnu.org Cc: Richard Kenner , bernds_cb1@t-online.de, dannyb@google.com, sam@rfc1149.net In-Reply-To: <475451C5.1080204@google.com> References: <2007-12-02-11-05-39+trackit+sam@rfc1149.net> <47543DE8.3010003@google.com> <475440E8.4000109@t-online.de> <475448BC.2020103@google.com> <10712031850.AA00730@vlsi1.ultra.nyu.edu> <475451C5.1080204@google.com> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:08:00 -0000 Message-Id: <1196712459.6257.23.camel@tim-gcc> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.10.1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-PMX-Branch: TNG-Outgoing X-IsSubscribed: yes Mailing-List: contact gcc-help@gcc.gnu.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: Sender: gcc-owner@gcc.gnu.org X-SW-Source: 2007-12/txt/msg00091.txt.bz2 On Mon, 2007-12-03 at 13:58 -0500, Diego Novillo wrote: > On 12/03/07 13:50, Richard Kenner wrote: > >> I guess that could work, but that wouldn't give a way into the history > >> for the change. Several times there is a post-mortem discussion on the > >> patch, leading to more patches. > > > > How about both? > > Sure. > > > Diego. Quite a few people are worried about verbose descriptions of changes cluttering up the ChangeLog. Others (like me) would like a way easily to find the discussions about the change, and would like a brief indication in the ChangeLog of the context of the change. The FSF also has good reasons for keeping solid records of who made what change. So, how about this: 1. For a PR fix, continue to record the PR number and category. Like this: PR tree-optimization/32694 2. For all changes, a one-line record giving the context, plus the URL of a key message in the email message trail, unless the intent is plainly obvious such as bumping the version number. Like this: Gimplification of Fortran front end. http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2007-12/msg00072.html 3. Continue to record "who made what change". Like this: * config/xtensa/xtensa.c (xtensa_expand_prologue): Put a REG_FRAME_RELATED_EXPR note on the last insn that sets up the stack pointer or frame pointer. This should satisfy everyone's needs. This would by no means be the largest divergence from the FSF standards by the GCC project. The use of languages other than C in the Ada front end is non-compliant by my reading. The compliance of the rest of the code to the FSF standards is spotty at times eg the garbage collection code. While this is a divergence from the FSF standards, it is a positive change and no information is being lost. It would be interesting to ask someone who was around at the time why the guidelines were written as they were. They rationale may no longer be relevant. Tim Josling