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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
Note that 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 ]
In software engineering, version control is a class of systems responsible for managing changes to computer programs, documents, large web sites, or other collections of information. Version control is a component of software configuration management.
Apache Subversion is a software versioning and revision 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).
The GNU Autotools, also known as the GNU Build System, is a suite of programming tools designed to assist in making source code packages portable to many Unix-like systems.
In software development, Make is a build automation tool that builds executable programs and libraries from source code by reading files called makefiles which specify how to derive the target program. Though integrated development environments and language-specific compiler features can also be used to manage a build process, Make remains widely used, especially in Unix and Unix-like operating systems.
dpkg is the software at the base of the package management system in the free operating system Debian and its numerous derivatives. dpkg is used to install, remove, and provide information about .deb packages.
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 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 changes in any set of computer files, usually used for coordinating work among programmers who are collaboratively developing source code during software development. Its goals include speed, data integrity, and support for distributed, non-linear workflows.
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 and Unix-like systems, such as FreeBSD, macOS, and Linux.
In 2006, a branding issue developed when Mike Connor, representing the Mozilla Corporation, requested that the Debian Project comply with Mozilla standards for use of the Thunderbird trademark when redistributing the Thunderbird software. At issue were modifications not approved by the Mozilla Foundation, when the name for the software remained the same.
The following is a comparison of notable hex editors.
In FOSS development communities, a forge is a web-based collaborative software platform for both developing and sharing computer applications. The term forge refers to a common prefix or suffix adopted by various platforms created after the example of SourceForge. This usage of the word stems from the metalworking forge, used for shaping metal parts.
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:
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.