[Python-Dev] Commit changelog: issue number and merges (original) (raw)

Benjamin Peterson benjamin at python.org
Mon May 9 16:08:53 CEST 2011

2011/5/9 Victor Stinner <victor.stinner at haypocalc.com>:

Hi,

Commit changelogs are important to understand why the code was changed. I regulary use hg blame to search which commit introduced a particular line of code, and I am always happy if I can find an issue number because it usually contains the whole story. And since the migration to Mercurial, we have also a great tool adding a comment to an issue if the changelog contains an issue number (e.g. changelog starting with "Issue #118888: ..."). So if someone watchs an issue (is in the nosy list), (s)he will be noticed that a related commit was pushed. It is not exactly something new: we already do that with Subversion except that today it is more automatic. I noticed that some recent commits don't contain the issue number: please try to always prefix your changelog with the issue number. It is not "mandatory", but it helps me when I dig the Python history. -- For merge commits: many developers just write "merge" or "merge 3.1". I have to go to the parent commit (and something to the grandparent, 3.1->3.2->3.3) to learn more about the commit.

I thought the whole point of merging was that you brought a changeset from one branch to another. This why I just write "merge" because otherwise you're technically duplicating information that is pulled onto the branch by merging.

It seems like something that should be solved by tools like a display visual graph indicating what is merged. (like Bazaar)

-- Regards, Benjamin

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