@node gitlog-to-changelog
@section gitlog-to-changelog

@c Copyright (C) 2024--2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

@c Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
@c under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
@c any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
@c Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A
@c copy of the license is at <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.en.html>.

@cindex gitlog
@cindex changelog
@mindex gitlog-to-changelog

Gnulib has a module @code{gitlog-to-changelog} to parse @code{git log}
output and generate @file{ChangeLog} files; see
@ifinfo
@ref{Change Logs,,,standards}.
@end ifinfo
@ifnotinfo
@url{https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Change-Logs.html}.
@end ifnotinfo

You can use it by extending the @code{dist-hook} rule in the
top-level @file{Makefile.am} like this:

@example
dist-hook: gen-ChangeLog
.PHONY: gen-ChangeLog
gen-ChangeLog:
        $(AM_V_GEN)if test -e $(srcdir)/.git; then             \
          LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 TZ=UTC0                           \
            $(top_srcdir)/build-aux/gitlog-to-changelog        \
              --srcdir=$(srcdir) > $(distdir)/ChangeLog        \
          || exit 1;                                           \
        fi
@end example

See @code{gitlog-to-changelog --help} for complete documentation.

The @code{LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 TZ=UTC0} line in this recipe assumes that
you want to generate reproducible @file{ChangeLog} files that do not
depend on the developer's locale and time zone.  Omit this line if you
prefer @file{ChangeLog} files that depend on these developer settings.

If you wish to output the @file{ChangeLog} with dates respecting the
time zone each individual commit was made in you can use the
@option{--commit-timezone} option.  For example:

@example
dist-hook: gen-ChangeLog
.PHONY: gen-ChangeLog
gen-ChangeLog:
        $(AM_V_GEN)if test -e $(srcdir)/.git; then             \
          $(top_srcdir)/build-aux/gitlog-to-changelog          \
              --srcdir=$(srcdir) --commit-timezone             \
              > $(distdir)/ChangeLog                           \
          || exit 1;                                           \
        fi
@end example

The use of @option{--commit-timezone} means that @file{ChangeLog} dates
correctly represent when a committer pushed a change according to their
time zone.  However, as a consequence @file{ChangeLog} dates will no
longer be monotonically increasing, if the developers are spread across
different time zones.
For example, the following three commits were made in a short period of
time across two different time zones.
This behavior may be undesired.

@example
2024-06-19  Bruno Haible  <bruno@@clisp.org>

	...

2024-06-18  Collin Funk  <collin.funk1@@gmail.com>

	...

2024-06-19  Bruno Haible  <bruno@@clisp.org>

	...
@end example

If you wish to limit the @file{ChangeLog} entries (perhaps for size
issues) to contain only entries since a particular git tag, you can
use a @code{gen-ChangeLog} rule like the following:

@example
gen_start_ver = 8.31
gen-ChangeLog:
        $(AM_V_GEN)if test -e $(srcdir)/.git; then                 \
          log_fix='$(srcdir)/build-aux/git-log-fix';               \
          test -e "$$log_fix"                                      \
            && amend_git_log=--amend=$$log_fix                     \
            || amend_git_log=;                                     \
          @{ LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 TZ=UTC0                             \
              $(top_srcdir)/build-aux/gitlog-to-changelog          \
                --srcdir=$(srcdir)                                 \
                "$$amend_git_log" -- 'v$(gen_start_ver)~..' &&     \
            printf '\n\nSee the source repo for older entries.\n'; \
          @} > $(distdir)/ChangeLog                                 \
          || exit 1;                                               \
        fi
@end example
