On Tue, 4 May 2010 23:41:40 +0200 Wolfgang Denk wd@denx.de wrote:
Dear Kim Phillips,
In message 20100413211604.66841557.kim.phillips@freescale.com you wrote:
CHANGELOG is a duplicate of the u-boot project's git log: remove it.
No. Please re-read the archive why this file is kept.
looking in the u-boot archives, found this very old thread (which I assume is the result of CHANGELOG causing a merge conflict way back when):
Subject: [U-Boot-Users] Proposed CHANGELOG Generation Helpers Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2006 20:14:30 -0500
and in Message-Id: 20061013095221.AC2B1353C95@atlas.denx.de, you write:
So since I seem to be the only person on this planet who likes to have this CHANGELOG file, and it has caused so much trouble already I suggest the following procedure:
...
(2) rename CHANGELOG into CHANGELOG.OLD, and start a new CHANGELOG which gets automatically generated using the command above or a variation thereof.
Note: nobody needs to take care of this file. It is purely for my own private needs, and I will manage it on my own. Everybody else can just ignore the existence of this file.
which doesn't do a good job of explaining why you keep this file.
More interestingly, in this message:
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/28785
you write:
True, as long as you can work within the SCM. The changelog file I'm talking about is mostly for people who just work with exported trees (for example, when they download a tarball).
which almost supports what I write in the commit message:
It is assumed that this file's only purpose is to serve non-git users downloading u-boot project source in the form of a tarball release. If that is the case, then the generation of the CHANGELOG file should occur at tarball release generation time, and not consume duplicate history,
..which was already suggested to you by Josef Weidendorfer:
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/28790
and further reinforced by Linus Torvalds, here:
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/28789
slowing things down and polluting grep match results for u-boot developers using git.
Slowing things down? C'me on.
maybe not git grep performance-wise (yet), but on a frequently-occurring search term, when we have to visually sift through and page down through a large number of CHANGELOG hits (that invariably show up first), then yes, I consider that a development-time barrier.
Polluting grep results? Then exclude this file from grepping...
that's a PITA, and besides, that's what this patch does, and, afaict, at no loss on your part.
u-boot project git history goes back to before u-boot 0.1.0, so remove CHANGELOG-before-U-Boot-1.1.5 file too.
NAK. My position about these files has not changed.
Please reconsider: u-boot has no need to be 'special' in this area, and this file's continued existence is a lingering harassment for developers such as myself.
Best regards,
Kim