Autogenerate the ChangeLogs

We no longer keep explicit ChangeLogs. Instead they get generated at
make dist time from the git logs. Automake recipe stolen from gnome-
games. Commit message guidelines stolen from GTK+.

1 files changed, 94 insertions, 50 deletions

diff --git a/HACKING b/HACKING
index 92a7899f9..c9cd71545 100644
--- a/HACKING
+++ b/HACKING
@@ -1,15 +1,16 @@
-If you are the maintainer of an applet, feel free to commit - unless we're 
-very close to a release. In that case, contact us.
-
-If you just want to hack, let us know. Most of the applets are unmaintained, 
-but you should try to contact the maintainer (or past maintainer) before 
-working on them, to avoid duplicate work and stepping on any toes. If unsure,
-ask us about it.
-
-The list of official maintainers is in the MAINTAINERS file. If you're a
-MAINTAINER and you're not listed, contact one of the overall maintainers to get
-yourself added. If you want to get bug reports for GNOME-Applets you can add
-yourself to listen to the gnome-applets-maint@bugzilla.gnome.org alias in your
+If you are the maintainer of an applet, feel free to commit - unless
+we're very close to a release. In that case, contact us.
+
+If you just want to hack, let us know. Most of the applets are
+unmaintained, but you should try to contact the maintainer (or past
+maintainer) before working on them, to avoid duplicate work and
+stepping on any toes. If unsure, ask us about it.
+
+The list of official maintainers is in the MAINTAINERS file. If you're
+a MAINTAINER and you're not listed, contact one of the overall
+maintainers to get yourself added. If you want to get bug reports for
+GNOME-Applets you can add yourself to listen to the
+gnome-applets-maint@bugzilla.gnome.org alias in your
 preferences. Filter on X-Bugzilla-Component: if required.
 
 Release planning for GNOME Applets is online at
@@ -19,54 +20,97 @@ We share a mailing list with GNOME Utilities, you can subscribe to
 
 Please attach your patches to a bug in http://bugzilla.gnome.org, either by
 filing new bugs or attaching it to an old one.
-Patches should be generated with `diff -uprN` (you can add "diff -up" to your
-~/.cvsrc).
+Patches should be generated with `diff -uprN`.
+
+If you are committing directly into the git repository, then follow
+these guidelines for the commit message (see also ChangeLog.README):
+
+The expected format for git commit messages is as follows:
+
+=== begin example commit ===
+Short explanation of the commit
+
+Longer explanation explaining exactly what's changed, whether any
+external or private interfaces changed, what bugs were fixed (with bug
+tracker reference if applicable) and so forth. Be concise but not too brief.
+=== end example commit ===
+
+  - Always add a brief description of the commit to the _first_ line of
+    the commit and terminate by two newlines (it will work without the
+    second newline, but that is not nice for the interfaces).
+
+  - First line (the brief description) must only be one sentence and
+    should start with a capital letter unless it starts with a lowercase
+    symbol or identifier. Don't use a trailing period either. Don't exceed
+    72 characters.
+
+  - The main description (the body) is normal prose and should use normal
+    punctuation and capital letters where appropriate. Normally, for patches
+    sent to a mailing list it's copied from there.
+
+  - When committing code on behalf of others use the --author option, e.g.
+    git commit -a --author "Joe Coder <joe@coder.org>" and --signoff.
+
+  - If the checkin is related to a bug, reference the bug number. 
+
+  - Checkin comments MUST use the UTF-8 encoding.
+
+  - Avoid meaningless checkin comments such as "forgotten file" !
+
+    If you forget to check in some changes that belonged in the same
+    commit (e.g.  you accidentally omitted a file), you must copy the
+    checkin comment from the previous, incomplete checkin, and
+    additionally reference that commit's svn revision number.
 
 Some tips for hacking/debugging the applets:
 
-1) The Panel Applet Writer's Reference Manual, including the PanelApplet
-   library documentation, can be found at 
+1) The Panel Applet Writer's Reference Manual, including the
+   PanelApplet library documentation, can be found at
    http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/panel-applet/libpanel-applet.html,
    or in gnome-panel/doc/reference/panel-applet (source). It is not
-   completely up to date, but it covers the basics of writing an applet.
+   completely up to date, but it covers the basics of writing an
+   applet.
 
-2) Look at the other applet implementations. One of the simpler applets is
-   the fish applet, which lives in gnome-panel/applets/fish.
+2) Look at the other applet implementations. One of the simpler
+   applets is the fish applet, which lives in
+   gnome-panel/applets/fish.
 
-3) Read the article about debugging GNOME Applets at 
+3) Read the article about debugging GNOME Applets at
    http://www.davyd.id.au/articles/debugging-gnome-applets.shtml.
-   This article also contains a list of common considerations when developing
-   applets. Please, please read this article, it covers everything you're
-   likely to need to know. If you find anything is missing, then contact
-   the maintainers.
+   This article also contains a list of common considerations when
+   developing applets. Please, please read this article, it covers
+   everything you're likely to need to know. If you find anything is
+   missing, then contact the maintainers.
 
 4) Be weary of static, global variables if you plan to allow the user
-   to be able to add multiple instances of the applet. Each instance will
-   share the static varible. This is described in the debugging article, under
-   "Other considerations".
-
-5) You'd probably want to run the applets from CVS, without nescessarily doing
-   the same with all of GNOME. To do this, install the applets from CVS to a
-   different prefix than the rest of GNOME, and change your bonobo servers 
-   directory to $prefix/lib/bonobo/servers. You'll find the config file by
-   running "bonobo-activation-sysconf --config-file-path". Add the directory to
-   as an <item> at the top of <searchpath>. Log out, run bonobo-slay and make
-   sure no bonobo processes are running. When you log in again, your applets
-   should be running from the new prefix.
-   Running single applets from CVS is described further in Davyd's debugging
-   article.
-
-6) Please make use of the global defines already provided for you, rather
-   then defining your own in your Makefile.am. Some useful global defines are
-   GNOME_ICONDIR, GNOME_PIXMAPSDIR, GNOME_LOCALEDIR, GNOME_GLADEDIR, DATADIR,
-   SYSCONFDIR, LIBDIR and VERSION.
-
-7) Attempt to use the Nautilus/GNOME-VFS coding style in GNOME-Applets. Code
-   should be neatly tabbed, with 8 character tabs, and fit on an 80 character
-   wide terminal. Ideally
-     functions (will_be_called (LIKE, THIS));
-   opening braces will be on a new line and variables will be declared at the
-   top of the block without assignment, C89 style.
+   to be able to add multiple instances of the applet. Each instance
+   will share the static varible. This is described in the debugging
+   article, under "Other considerations".
+
+5) You'd probably want to run the applets from git, without
+   nescessarily doing the same with all of GNOME. To do this, install
+   the applets from git to a different prefix than the rest of GNOME,
+   and change your bonobo servers directory to
+   $prefix/lib/bonobo/servers. You'll find the config file by running
+   "bonobo-activation-sysconf --config-file-path". Add the directory
+   to as an <item> at the top of <searchpath>. Log out, run
+   bonobo-slay and make sure no bonobo processes are running. When you
+   log in again, your applets should be running from the new prefix.
+   Running single applets from CVS is described further in Davyd's
+   debugging article.
+
+6) Please make use of the global defines already provided for you,
+   rather then defining your own in your Makefile.am. Some useful
+   global defines are GNOME_ICONDIR, GNOME_PIXMAPSDIR,
+   GNOME_LOCALEDIR, GNOME_GLADEDIR, DATADIR, SYSCONFDIR, LIBDIR and
+   VERSION.
+
+7) Attempt to use the Nautilus/GNOME-VFS coding style in
+   GNOME-Applets. Code should be neatly tabbed, with 8 character tabs,
+   and fit on an 80 character wide terminal. Ideally functions
+   (will_be_called (LIKE, THIS)); opening braces will be on a new line
+   and variables will be declared at the top of the block without
+   assignment, C89 style.
 
 Davyd Madeley <davyd@madeley.id.au>
 Kevin Vandersloot <kfv101 at psu dot edu>