Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Git change logs
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2021 18:42:31
Message-Id: CAGfcS_kpNtr-9AEahcVGZoOxXj8EjMiB24i+K4HMk22qZZi0pQ@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] Git change logs by Peter Humphrey
1 On Mon, Nov 29, 2021 at 11:43 AM Peter Humphrey <peter@××××××××××××.uk> wrote:
2 >
3 > On Monday, 29 November 2021 16:32:45 GMT Rich Freeman wrote:
4 > > On Mon, Nov 29, 2021 at 11:17 AM Peter Humphrey
5 > <peter@××××××××××××.uk> wrote:
6 > > > # (cd /var/db/repos/gentoo/sys-devel/gcc && git whatchanged)
7 > >
8 > > You'd get just as much output from git log - you didn't restrict the
9 > > output so it ran on the entire repository. The current working
10 > > directory has no impact on the function of either git log or git
11 > > whatchanged.
12 >
13 > See what I mean about counter-intuitive?
14
15 You won't get any arguments from me that git is not a very refined
16 piece of software. The other glaring flaw is inconsistencies in
17 command line options between various subcommands.
18
19 It is a beautiful concept, with a rough implementation.
20
21 >
22 > > You could append a . to just run git whatchanged on the current
23 > > directory. I run "git whatchanged ." all the time.
24 >
25 > Thanks. I will. But how do I find the real change log of a package? The sort of
26 > stuff I used to include in a software release bulletin when I was running the
27 > show. What has changed, and why? What fault reports have been closed? What
28 > new behaviour can be expected?
29
30 If there are any gentoo bugs resolved by a commit they're likely to
31 show up in the log (or with whatchanged), unless you ask for a oneline
32 version which will only show the first line of the log. The bugs
33 would include links but obviously you'd have to hunt down what they
34 actually are.
35
36 Usually if a commit fixes some sort of serious issue it is going to
37 end up in the text of the commit description, especially if that were
38 the only change. If it is a version bump and it happened to also
39 update the EAPI or fix a URL or something minor that might not get
40 mentioned.
41
42 As far as upstream behavior changes goes, don't expect to see this in
43 the commit log unless it is incredibly impactful, in which case you
44 might get news (like some big ABI break in the toolchain or
45 something). In general Gentoo does not really do handholding with
46 release notes with upstream changes, or even provide more than a basic
47 level of integration across packages. As was mentioned in another
48 recent discussion, don't expect that the latest stable kernel is
49 guaranteed to work with the latest stable zfs-kmod package, etc. A
50 more release-based distro would be better equipped to do that but
51 actually doing a serious job of upstream release notes would be a LOT
52 of work.
53
54 The Gentoo commit log is going to be more about changes in how
55 something is packaged. Some are more detailed than others. I know I
56 personally try to mention things like EAPI changes but I'm not sure
57 that everybody does.
58
59 Unfortunately since most changes create new revisions the diff
60 capabilities of git tend to be limited in usefulness.
61
62 --
63 Rich