From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from esa3.mentor.iphmx.com (esa3.mentor.iphmx.com [68.232.137.180]) by sourceware.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id C828B3858039 for ; Tue, 12 Jan 2021 18:14:28 +0000 (GMT) DMARC-Filter: OpenDMARC Filter v1.3.2 sourceware.org C828B3858039 Authentication-Results: sourceware.org; dmarc=none (p=none dis=none) header.from=codesourcery.com Authentication-Results: sourceware.org; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=joseph_myers@mentor.com IronPort-SDR: vb754GeJWd+5K3HNBIfCfmas9GQ6mv1JV/j0gOm7oMvDiHsuTBWhY4WSonYSceoDPWOGz7KW7+ ngp1Fh3n7eX/Z81K53NCYQQFyT9yq6tuY1D7cLMed/baMmPrUCeAAFHaTFJE9W1Y96gpJJdVK9 1okebw3kkQxPXeDv4uHs3fz24x3yxlDmNQGjquhxR7WnN737hU2a5LOVR9RoiTYH5qsAAtAc6H YxrFsewxEsouHBPjBB/w9+cGX2z4vitxbTeuL3f90wlwr4cuBQ+PcvkSq6ad5Q+lWX+a6C0iY7 Tlc= X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="5.79,342,1602576000"; d="scan'208";a="57000956" Received: from orw-gwy-02-in.mentorg.com ([192.94.38.167]) by esa3.mentor.iphmx.com with ESMTP; 12 Jan 2021 10:14:26 -0800 IronPort-SDR: rZh88kcmdbr7yHkS2tHhKqaoY6Bva/JQfhOCayKulGWBSq1KK/VNAYHU1PH/SaSUgSuI1IQ/FG 7Z1XArwxCSgP5tKz99TXcCrYKPjcQTh6W28qKc8Crn4/pmRWMWQTDr4/X3O9+Z2xZS2TdMDEHG 3MawbyrdAM6tk7SMbjB21FwrkzD023HQwg/iN4uGuk9XJmnDNxc2Vr6pdgxUIPPptC79jfclqG HvPwIQnR5/Zxh6JimgtTaLvpRMNDEiLrr0zSGe4Q3PCHNaUp81pYbqVzPwmnkAmpCJVWx0x89J Blo= Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2021 18:14:22 +0000 From: Joseph Myers X-X-Sender: jsm28@digraph.polyomino.org.uk To: Andrew Burgess CC: Subject: Re: [PATCH] sim: switch to autogenerated ChangeLog files In-Reply-To: <20210112104746.GJ1175365@embecosm.com> Message-ID: References: <20210110033752.6002-1-vapier@gentoo.org> <20210110034223.6268-1-vapier@gentoo.org> <20210111110544.GC1151657@embecosm.com> <313988fb-ed42-11f7-1e64-b46005580792@polymtl.ca> <20210111193830.GT7494@vapier> <20210112104746.GJ1175365@embecosm.com> User-Agent: Alpine 2.22 (DEB 394 2020-01-19) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" X-Originating-IP: [137.202.0.90] X-ClientProxiedBy: svr-ies-mbx-05.mgc.mentorg.com (139.181.222.5) To svr-ies-mbx-01.mgc.mentorg.com (139.181.222.1) X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3123.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, KAM_DMARC_STATUS, KAM_SHORT, SPF_HELO_PASS, SPF_PASS, TXREP autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on server2.sourceware.org X-BeenThere: gdb-patches@sourceware.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.29 Precedence: list List-Id: Gdb-patches mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2021 18:14:30 -0000 On Tue, 12 Jan 2021, Andrew Burgess wrote: > > to be clear, it isn't generating entries exactly like we write. it's > > using the git commit logs with formatted dates. so i don't think this > > applies exactly anymore. so it's inline with the GNU's VCS principles: > > https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Change-Logs.html > > (and that also recommends just using gitlog-to-changelog). > > I read this page, and especially the part that talks about using > gitlog-to-changelog, and I don't find their argument compelling. What the GNU Coding Standards say about ChangeLogs isn't what would make sense from a starting point of modern development practices, it's what we could convince the maintainers of the GNU Coding Standards (being used to ChangeLog-centric development practices) to allow. The discussion started at and took a few years (a few bits were on an internal GNU Project list, but most was on bug-standards). In particular, the maintainers of the GNU Coding Standards fixated on a point that they were used to using the lists of changes to named entities (functions etc.) in ChangeLogs as part of the debugging process, while my position is that the typical problem for which such lists are used is not "map a commit to the named entities modified in that change" but the inverse problem "map a named entity to the commits changing it", which version control tools handle well without needing to go via the ChangeLog-format lists at all. -- Joseph S. Myers joseph@codesourcery.com