Re: about bug tracking

[Werner LEMBERG]

[about a CangeLog file]

> The only objection is that I'm using WinCVS when I'm doing work on
> Windows NT, so running a Unix shell script from there will not be
> easy nor intuitive.

Using this script is just an aid to avoid typing messages twice
(ChangeLog and CVS log messages).

> Besides, I'm pretty certain than Just will simply not feel confident
> with this on his Mac..!

I don't think so.  This is a plain ASCII file.

> What's the format of a ChangeLog ? I'll try too lookup the
> GNU sites for documentation..

Here the last few entries of the groff ChangeLog file:


2000-10-14  Werner LEMBERG  <address@hidden>

        Replace tmac.safer with a real secure solution.

        * src/roff/troff/input.cc (open_request, opena_request, pipe_source,
        system_request, pipe_output): Disable requests if in safer mode.
        * src/roff/groff/groff.cc (main): Remove reference to tmac.safer.
        * tmac/tmac.safer, tmac/groff_msafer.man: Removed.
        * tmac/Makefile.sub, NEWS, man/roff.man, tmac/groff_tmac.man,
        doc/groff.texinfo, src/roff/groff/groff.man,
        src/roff/troff/troff.man, arch/djgpp/README: Updated.

        * src/devices/grops/ps.cc (main), src/devices/grops/psrm.cc
        (resource_manager::output_prolog): Replace setenv() with putenv().

2000-10-09  Werner LEMBERG  <address@hidden>

        * src/libs/libbib/map.c, src/libs/libgroff/getcwd.c,
        src/libs/libgroff/strtol.c, src/preproc/html2/image.cc,
        src/preproc/html2/pre-html.cc, src/preproc/html2/pushbackbuffer.cc,
        src/roff/groff/pipeline.c: Removing `#ifndef errno' to avoid
        compilation errors with some compilers.  It seems that this code
        is no longer necessary -- if yes, it is easy to add some #ifdef's
        for that particular old-fashioned compiler.

        * MORE.STUFF: Added info about Meta-tbl.

        * doc/groff.texinfo: Added more info about `.if "..."..."'.


The indentation should be a tab character.  Using this format, you are
forced to concisely describe the changes, where they have been made
(i.e., in which functions), and which files are affected.

> My general idea is that we should try _really_ hard to rely on tools
> that are widely available and relatively easy to use.

Writing a ChangeLog entry is really platform-independent.

> If there is no way to use a GNU ChangeLog on Windows and the Mac,
> we can forget about it. However, it we can convert the "commit"
> script to some simple Python program, I'd reconsider this position!

OK.  Is there a volunteer to do that?  It should be not too difficult
for people who have knowledge of sh and Python (unfortunately, I don't
know Python well enough to do it by myself).  And I can imagine that
the author, Alexandre Oliva <address@hidden>, would be happy about
such a contribution.

BTW, attached is the latest version of this script (it is now called
clcommit; it is part of the cvs-utils package -- its CVS archive is at
subversions.gnu.org; more details can be found at
http://www.gnu.org/software/devel.html#CVSAccess).

It only uses `sed', `cat', and `grep' (and a pager to show the log
entries just before a commitment); all these tools can be easily
emulated within Python, AFAIK.


    Werner

clcommit
Description: Text document