QUIP 17: Change log creation

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Overview

The Qt framework uses change logs as a means of informing users about new features, important behavior changes, and bug fixes. Before each release, a change log file is generated from the section of git commit messages that start with the [ChangeLog] keyword.

Content

Do include: - Noteworthy features - Significant changes - Changes that affect many users - Changes that affect compatibility - Changes to information about third-party code (see QUIP-4)

Do not include:

• Fixes in tests
• Documentation fixes
• Pure code cleanup or refactoring
• Fixes for regressions introduced in not-yet-released commits
• Anything that is not relevant to users

Format

• A [ChangeLog] entry may span multiple lines and ends with an empty line.

• You may add more than one [ChangeLog] entry, each in a separate paragraph, if there are several ways the change affects users.

• Each entry starts with a sequence of tags, each in square brackets, the first of which is [ChangeLog].

  • If the Git repository contains multiple modules, use the module name as a tag to indicate the area of the change, e.g. [QtCore].
  • Optionally specify a class or subtopic as an additional tag, e.g.: [QtNetwork][QSslSocket]
  • Other common tags are:
    • [General]
    • [Important Behavior Changes]
    • [Potentially Source-Incompatible Changes]
    • [Deprecation Notices]
    • [Platform Specific Changes]
    • [Windows]
    • [macOS]
    • [Linux/XCB]
    • [Third-Party Code]

• After the tags, describe how the change impacts users of the relevant component.

  • Try to integrate the ChangeLog entry into the surrounding commit message to avoid redundancy.
  • If the change resolves a security issue, summarise the issue and mention any relevant CVE or kindred identifiers.
  • The description should use either simple past (“Fixed …”) or be explicit about referring to the current state (“… does now …”).
  • Make sure the entry is reasonably self-contained. If you fail to formulate a meaningful description, it’s probably not useful information to start with.

• In summary, the entry should look like this:

  [ChangeLog][module][class/topic] description of the really important
  change that was just made (on several lines).

Tools

The createchangelog tool in the qtqa.git module is currently the most feature-complete tool for change log creation. Documentation for it can be found in its README under src/createchangelog.