[webkit-dev] I *HATE* CHANGELOGS!!!

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On Aug 26, 2009, at 3:37 PM, David Hyatt wrote:

> If the files could just merge properly, I would not be so annoyed,  
> but the fact that you basically have to re-resolve conflicts every  
> time anyone beats you to a checkin is just horrible.  Surely other  
> people run into this.  It wastes time for me on practically every  
> single checkin.... and I have ended up causing regressions because I  
> don't wait to re-run layout tests every time just because I am  
> trying to get my files landed before someone else modified the  
> ChangeLog again.

If you use update-webkit it should merge the ChangeLog for you, or if  
you use vanilla svn update, resolve-ChangeLogs should fix up the  
conflicts. Do these not work for you?

>
> On top of that sometimes the ChangeLog merges cleanly but puts your  
> entry underneath others, and then you have to open the file and move  
> your entry back to the top.  Sometimes I have not noticed this and  
> then I land with someone else's commit message.
>
> I just don't get why people are willing to put up with this.  It's  
> really driving me crazy.

The above make it tolerable for me, but if it's really unlivable, we  
can consider some other way to do this. One possibility is to have a  
commit hook that builds the ChangeLog entry and includes it in the  
commit atomically - that way there are no races.

Regards,
Maciej


>
> dave
>
> On Aug 26, 2009, at 3:34 PM, Chris Marrin wrote:
>
>>
>> On Aug 26, 2009, at 3:26 PM, David Hyatt wrote:
>>
>>> I am so sick of Changelogs.  Every time I get a patch ready to  
>>> land, I end up being blocked on commit because of conflicts in the  
>>> stupid ChangeLog files.  Often even after I resolve conflicts,  
>>> someone checks in again, and then I get conflicts all over again.
>>>
>>> If I have to make a minor change because of a code review, I often  
>>> don't feel like I can even re-run layout tests, because waiting  
>>> even 5 minutes just means I'm going to have conflicts again!
>>>
>>> Having everyone in the project hitting the same file when all of  
>>> this information could be specified as part of checkin messages is  
>>> just crazy.  How much productivity has been lost from everyone  
>>> having to fix that stupid file... we've even written whole scripts  
>>> just to deal with merge headaches from this file.
>>>
>>> What purpose do these stupid files even serve at this point?
>>>
>>> They need to die.
>>
>>
>> It's great to hear you say this. I agree and hit this issue all the  
>> time as well. Like you say, the SVN log has the same information as  
>> the Changelog. Maybe prepareChangelog should become  
>> prepareCommitMessage which can generate a message template with  
>> slots for the reviewer and list the files changed so you can still  
>> add details about the changes. It would make life easier, I think...
>>
>> -----
>> ~Chris
>> cmarrin at apple.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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