Changelog

Changelog
For information on Wikipedia changelogs, see Help:Page history.

A changelog is a log or record of changes made to a project, such as a website or software project, usually including such records as bug fixes, new features, etc. Most open source projects include a changelog as one of the top level files in their distribution.

Although the canonical naming convention for the file is ChangeLog,[1] it is sometimes alternatively named as CHANGES or HISTORY (NEWS is usually a different file reflecting changes between releases, not between the commits). Some project maintainers will append a .txt suffix to the file name.

Some revision control systems are able to generate the relevant information that is suited as a changelog.

Contents

Format

Changelog files are organized by paragraphs, which define a unique change within a function or file. Most changelog files follow the following format:

YYYY-MM-DD  John Doe  <johndoe@example.com>

    * myfile.ext (myfunction): my changes made
    additional changes

    * myfile.ext (unrelated_change): my changes made
    to myfile.ext but completely unrelated to the above

    * anotherfile.ext (somefunction): more changes

Note that between the date and the name, and again between the name and the email address, there are two spaces each. It is common to enclose the email address in < and >. The Emacs Editor creates such entries when creating additional changelog entries.

Changelogs in Wikis

Most Wiki software includes changelogs as a fundamental feature (often called history in this context). For example, the "View History" link at the top of a Wikipedia entry links to that page's changelog. This feature is vital for complying with the attribution requirements of some copyright licenses.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The GNU automake manual

External links

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