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Look up changelog in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
A changelog (also spelled change log [1] ) is a log or record of all notable changes made to a project. The project is often a website or software project, and the changelog usually includes records of changes such as bug fixes, new features, etc. Some open-source projects include a changelog as one of the top-level files in their distribution.
A changelog has historically included all changes made to a project. The "Keep a Changelog" site instead advocates that a changelog not include all changes, but that it should instead contain "a curated, chronologically ordered list of notable changes for each version of a project" and should not be a "dump" of a git log "because this helps nobody". [2]
Although the GNU (Automake) canonical naming convention for the file is ChangeLog, [3] it is sometimes alternatively named as CHANGES or HISTORY (NEWS is usually a different file reflecting changes between releases, not between the commits). Another convention is to call it a CHANGELOG. [2] Some project maintainers will append a .txt suffix to the file name if the changelog is plain text, a .md suffix if it is in Markdown, or a .rst suffix if it is in reStructuredText.
Some revision control systems are able to generate the relevant information for a changelog, if the goal is to include all changes. [4]
Changelog files are organized by paragraphs, which define a unique change within a function or file. The GNU Coding standards recommend the following format: [5]
YYYY-MM-DD␣␣John Doe␣␣<johndoe@example.com> * myfile.ext (myfunction): my changes made additional changes. * myfile.ext (unrelated_change): my changes made to myfile.ext but completely unrelated to the above. * anotherfile.ext (somefunction): more changes made by me.
Between the date and the name, and again between the name and the email address, there are two spaces each. It is common to enclose the email address in < and >. The Emacs editor creates such entries when creating additional changelog entries.
Most wiki software includes changelogs as a fundamental feature (often called history in this context). For example, the "View history" link at the top [6] of a Wikipedia entry links to that page's changelog. This feature is vital for complying with the attribution requirements of some copyright licenses.[ citation needed ]
A product changelog can keep customers in the loop about what's new. It helps to announce new features, latest releases, and relevant news directly in-app.[ citation needed ]
Apache Subversion is a version control system distributed as open source under the Apache License. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS).
GNU Autoconf is a software development tool for generating a configure script that in turn generates files for building a codebase and for packaging or installing the resulting files. Autoconf is part of the GNU Build System – along with Automake, Libtool, Autoheader and other tools.
The GNU Autotools, also known as the GNU Build System, is a suite of build automation tools designed to support building source code and packaging the resulting binaries. It supports building a codebase for multiple target systems without customizing or modifying the code. It is available on many Linux distributions and Unix-like environments.
In software development, Make is a command-line interface software tool that performs actions ordered by configured dependencies as defined in a configuration file called a makefile. It is commonly used for build automation to build executable code from source code. But, not limited to building, Make can perform any operation available via the operating system shell.
KDevelop is a free and open-source integrated development environment (IDE) for Unix-like computer operating systems and Windows. It provides editing, navigation and debugging features for several programming languages, and integration with build automation and version-control systems, using a plugin-based architecture.
GNU Automake is a software development tool to automate parts of the compilation process. It eases common compilation problems. For example, it points to needed dependencies.
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct and separate piece of software. The term often implies not merely a development branch, but also a split in the developer community; as such, it is a form of schism. Grounds for forking are varying user preferences and stagnated or discontinued development of the original software.
GNU Wget is a computer program that retrieves content from web servers. It is part of the GNU Project. Its name derives from "World Wide Web" and "get". It supports downloading via HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP.
Release notes are documents that are distributed with software products or hardware products, sometimes when the product is still in the development or test state. For products that have already been in use by clients, the release note is delivered to the customer when an update is released. Another abbreviation for Release notes is Changelog or Release logs or Software changes or Revision historyUpdates or README file. However, in some cases, the release notes and changelog are published separately. This split is for clarity and differentiation of feature-highlights from bugs, change requests (CRs) or improvements on the other side.
The following tables compare general and technical information for many wiki software packages.
Git is a distributed version control system that tracks versions of files. It is often used to control source code by programmers who are developing software collaboratively.
In software development, distributed version control is a form of version control in which the complete codebase, including its full history, is mirrored on every developer's computer. Compared to centralized version control, this enables automatic management branching and merging, speeds up most operations, improves the ability to work offline, and does not rely on a single location for backups. Git, the world's most popular version control system, is a distributed version control system.
TortoiseCVS is a CVS client for Microsoft Windows released under the GNU General Public License. Unlike most CVS tools, it includes itself in Windows' shell by adding entries in the contextual menu of the file explorer, therefore it does not run in its own window. Moreover, it adds icons onto files and directories controlled by CVS, giving additional information to the user without having to run a full-scale stand-alone application.
A source-code-hosting facility is a file archive and web hosting facility for source code of software, documentation, web pages, and other works, accessible either publicly or privately. They are often used by open-source software projects and other multi-developer projects to maintain revision and version history, or version control. Many repositories provide a bug tracking system, and offer release management, mailing lists, and wiki-based project documentation. Software authors generally retain their copyright when software is posted to a code hosting facilities.
Mercurial is a distributed revision control tool for software developers. It is supported on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and other Unix-like systems, such as FreeBSD and macOS.
Fisheye is a revision-control browser and search engine owned by Atlassian, Inc. Although Fisheye is a commercial product, it is freely available to open source projects and non-profit institutions. In addition to the advanced search and diff capabilities, it provides:
GNU Emacs is a text editor and suite of free software tools. Its development began in 1984 by GNU Project founder Richard Stallman, based on the Emacs editor developed for Unix operating systems. GNU Emacs has been a central component of the GNU project and a flagship project of the free software movement.
Emacs, originally named EMACS, is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, self-documenting, real-time display editor". Development of the first Emacs began in the mid-1970s, and work on GNU Emacs, directly descended from the original, is ongoing; its latest version is 29.4 , released June 2024.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Perl programming language:
Travis CI is a hosted continuous integration service used to build and test software projects hosted on GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, Perforce, Apache Subversion and Assembla.