Commit messages

[Michael Vogt]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 12:07:42AM +0100, Oliver Grawert wrote:
[..]
> > Updates #123456,782345
> > Closes #415211
> > """
> > 
> 
> would it be possible to have a script or some such that also generates
> a proper debian/changelog file with the corresponding "LP: #XXXXXXX"
> entries from the commits ?
> 
> currently mvo creates the package by hand and we end up with changelog
> entries like "* new git snapshot", so neither the launchpad bugs get
> auto-closed nor can you see the actual list of changes in the package
> changelog (i understand it is painful to transfer git commit summaries
> by hand for each package upload, if we had a file you could just
> copy/paste from that might be helpful in this case)

I am using git-dch (gbp dch) for all my other projects and really like
it a lot. It requires a bit of discipline when writing commit messages
because each commit summary (the first line) will end up as a
debian/changelog entry (unless the `Git-dch: ignore` tag is used in
the commit message). But we can limit it to only look at "merge"
commits. It also supports `LP: #XXX` to close bugs.

If using `gbp dch` we should consider to slightly change the original
proposal and include the affected packages in the description or as a
special tag so that the summary has a bit more room for text.

Something like:
```
Cleanup mountunit when installing a snap fails

Add the missing cleanup of freshly created mountunits if 
installing a snap fails. Also add regression test.

LP: #1234
Thanks: Leo for reporting
Affects: snappy, snap/file
```

This will render a debian/changelog like:
```
ubuntu-snappy (1.7.2+20160113ubuntu2) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium

  * Cleanup mountunit when installing a snap fails.
    Thanks to Leo for reporting (LP: #1234)

 -- Michael Vogt <mvo at ubuntu.com>  Thu, 21 Jan 2016 08:18:22 +0100
```

`gbp dch` allow to specifiy additional git log options, so we can use:
gbp.conf with `git-log = --merges` and it will filter on the merge
commits.

So to summarize, I really like the proposal for more standardized
merge commit messages. I would suggest to move the affected packages
out of the summary into the body and encourage the use of tags like
"LP: ", "Thanks: ". This would make releasing with sensible changelogs
much easier for me. 

Thanks!
 Michael