Can changelogs be bad?
Yes. Here are a few ways they can be less than useful.
Commit log diffs
Using commit log diffs as changelogs is a bad idea: they’re full of noise. Things like merge commits, commits with obscure titles, documentation changes, etc.
You are viewing: What Is A Changelog
The purpose of a commit is to document a step in the evolution of the source code. Some projects clean up commits, some don’t.
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The purpose of a changelog entry is to document the noteworthy difference, often across multiple commits, to communicate them clearly to end users.
Ignoring Deprecations
When people upgrade from one version to another, it should be painfully clear when something will break. It should be possible to upgrade to a version that lists deprecations, remove what’s deprecated, then upgrade to the version where the deprecations become removals.
If you do nothing else, list deprecations, removals, and any breaking changes in your changelog.
Confusing Dates
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Regional date formats vary throughout the world and it’s often difficult to find a human-friendly date format that feels intuitive to everyone. The advantage of dates formatted like 2017-07-17 is that they follow the order of largest to smallest units: year, month, and day. This format also doesn’t overlap in ambiguous ways with other date formats, unlike some regional formats that switch the position of month and day numbers. These reasons, and the fact this date format is an ISO standard, are why it is the recommended date format for changelog entries.
Inconsistent Changes
A changelog which only mentions some of the changes can be as dangerous as not having a changelog. While many of the changes may not be relevant – for instance, removing a single whitespace may not need to be recorded in all instances – any important changes should be mentioned in the changelog. By inconsistently applying changes, your users may mistakenly think that the changelog is the single source of truth. It ought to be. With great power comes great responsibility – having a good changelog means having a consistently updated changelog.
There’s more. Help me collect these antipatterns by opening an issue or a pull request.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHAT
