What’s a change log?
Thu, 10 Nov 2016 10:02:19 +0100
#^Keep a CHANGELOG
Don’t let your friends dump git logs into CHANGELOGs™
What makes a good change log?
I’m glad you asked.
A good change log sticks to these principles:
It’s made for humans, not machines, so legibility is crucial.
Easy to link to any section (hence Markdown over plain text).
One sub-section per version.
List releases in reverse-chronological order (newest on top).
Write all dates in YYYY-MM-DD format. (Example: 2012-06-02 for June 2nd, 2012.) It’s international, sensible, and language-independent.
Explicitly mention whether the project follows Semantic Versioning.
Each version should:
List its release date in the above format.
Group changes to describe their impact on the project, as follows:
Added for new features.
Changed for changes in existing functionality.
Deprecated for once-stable features removed in upcoming releases.
Removed for deprecated features removed in this release.
Fixed for any bug fixes.
Security to invite users to upgrade in case of vulnerabilities.
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