Re: Using the vcs_to_changelog.py script

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz at gnu dot org>]

> Cc: binutils@sourceware.org, gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> From: Simon Marchi <simon.marchi@polymtl.ca>
> Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2020 14:30:54 -0500
> 
> > AFAIU, our current standards assume the ChangeLog-formatted entry is
> > part of the log message which describes the individual changes.  If
> > that is removed, we may wish to modify our standards to make up for
> > the loss.
> 
> Do you know where that is written?

I don't know.  I just describe the current state of things.

> >   Commit:     Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
> >   CommitDate: Mon Jan 6 21:54:21 2020 +0200
> > 
> >       Fix MinGW native compilation of gdb/gdbsupport/gdb_wait.c
> > 
> >       gdb/ChangeLog
> >       2020-01-06  Eli Zaretskii  <eliz@gnu.org>
> > 
> > 	      * gdbsupport/gdb_wait.c: Include <signal.h> instead of
> > 	      gdb/signals.h, as we are now using native signal symbols.
> 
> Well, you would essentially just say the same thing, just not in "ChangeLog
> entry" format.  I'm not sure what's the problem here.

I'm saying that we should tell somewhere what should be in the log
message regarding the actual changes.

> Note that if I were to review this patch, I would probably ask for a bit more
> context in the commit log though (on top of what you already say in the
> ChangeLog entry).  I'm sure there was a big discussion that lead to this change,
> so from your point of view, this change probably seemed obvious.  But as
> somebody lacking the relevant context, I can't really tell why including
> gdb/signals.h was wrong and why including signal.h is better.

First, I can in principle push changes without waiting for review.
And there are quite a few cases where I post patches without ChangeLog
entries (which I add later, when actually pushing).  In both cases,
you'd not see the log message I'm about to push.

So I think it would be good to have some guidelines about that.

> I would therefore suggest adding:
> 
> - What's the problem you're trying to fix (compilation error?  if so please
>   paste it in the commit log?)
> - Why is this the right way to fix it?

Something like that, yes.  I'm saying that we should have this on the
wiki.