docs(changelog): convert CHANGES.txt to Keep a Changelog - #3500
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Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 8 included reviews per hour; 7 remain after this review. 📝 WalkthroughWalkthroughThe pull request standardizes changelog references on ChangesChangelog standardization
Priority: ⬇️ Low Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to This change standardizes the changelog and release documentation around CHANGELOG.md and bare version tags, with no concrete current-head issue indicating user or production risk. 🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5✅ Passed checks (5 passed)
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| * [7.0.0](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/testng-users/HKujuefBhXA) | ||
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| [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md) covers every release, back to 0.2. Each one is also announced on the | ||
| [testng-users](https://groups.google.com/g/testng-users) mailing list. |
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From the mailing list, finding the individual release notes for a release is going to be difficult. Which is why I started including an actual reference to the release notes. Do you see any challenges in retaining this ?
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No challenge — restored, and you are right about the reason. I dropped the list on the argument that it was a per-release chore the changelog now covers, but that argument only holds for what changed; it says nothing about finding the announcement, and the archive really does make a single release hard to reach. Both are there now: CHANGELOG.md first for the content, then the per-version threads.
The upkeep is back in the process rather than left to memory: docs/RELEASE_PROCESS.md gains a step 5 that adds the thread link, placed after the announcement is sent, which is when the thread id starts existing.
— Claude
| `CHANGELOG.md` follows [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.1.0/), so releasing turns | ||
| the section contributors have been filling in into a dated one: | ||
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| 1. Rename `## [Unreleased]` to `## [X.Y.Z] - YYYY-MM-DD`, using the release date, and drop its |
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Where should these steps be performed? Can you please include details around it ?
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Preferably as a step by step tutorial so that its easy for someone to follow and do a release
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Rewritten as a step-by-step walkthrough. To your first question: on master, in a working copy, after the tag is pushed — that is now stated outright, with the git checkout master && git pull that starts it.
It is four sub-steps, each with the exact edit or command:
- 2.1 date the section being released, with a before/after of the actual Markdown, and the
[YANKED]shape for a release that had to be pulled; - 2.2 the two link definitions at the foot of the file, spelled out;
- 2.3 the
gradle.propertiesbump; - 2.4 the
git add/commit/push.
The worked example releases 7.10.0 and opens 7.11.0 throughout, so the version numbers can be read straight off rather than substituted.
One thing I moved out: linking the announcement from README.md was inside this step, but it needs the mailing list thread id, which does not exist until step 4 has run. It is its own step 5 now.
— Claude
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Actionable comments posted: 2
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Inline comments:
In `@docs/RELEASE_PROCESS.md`:
- Line 341: Update the release-process documentation wording around the
comparison-link instruction by replacing “repoint” with the Vale-approved term
“update,” without changing the documented procedure.
- Around line 325-326: Update the announcement template’s release URL to use the
bare version tag format, changing the `/releases/tag/v7.10.0` reference to
`/releases/tag/7.10.0` so it matches the tag created by the release procedure.
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Inline comments:
In `@docs/RELEASE_PROCESS.md`:
- Around line 325-326: Update the release tagging steps around RELEASE_COMMIT so
the tag is created from the successful Publish to Maven Central workflow commit
SHA rather than local HEAD. Set RELEASE_COMMIT to that workflow’s selected
commit and ensure the subsequent git tag and push operate on that commit.
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Inline comments:
In `@docs/RELEASE_PROCESS.md`:
- Around line 75-77: Update the release-process overview diagram to include
“Create GitHub Release” between “Promote changelog” and “Send announcement,”
matching the existing detailed procedure and preserving the diagram’s
formatting.
- Around line 329-331: Update the release workflow around RELEASE_COMMIT to
retain the dispatched Publish to Maven Central run ID, query that exact run for
headSha, and validate it matches the expected release commit before creating the
tag; do not select the latest successful run via an unrestricted list query.
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CHANGES.txt is about to become CHANGELOG.md. It escaped Vale only because .vale.ini covers *.md and *.java, and it holds two decades of contributor names and issue references. An empty BasedOnStyles under [**/CHANGELOG.md] switches every style off for it. Measured with Vale 3.20.0 through the writingStyleCheck task: 1115 findings from that one file before, 0 after, and every other Markdown still reports what it reported. The pattern needs its **/ prefix. The task passes absolute paths, and a bare [CHANGELOG.md] section matches the file only when Vale is handed a relative one -- so the section reads as working while checking nothing. The prose workflow stops triggering on a pull request that only touches the changelog, since there would be nothing left for it to check.
CHANGES.txt held twenty years of releases in a format that grew by accretion: 93 sections under six different heading shapes, 51 dates in five formats, sixteen entry prefixes, and product sub-headings that partitioned a version between core, the Eclipse plug-in and the IDEA plug-in. It is now CHANGELOG.md, following Keep a Changelog 1.1.0. The conversion is a format change. Every entry, sub-bullet, issue reference and attribution is carried over word for word; the 751 GITHUB- and TESTNG- references come out at 751, none lost and none invented, and the 93 sections stay 93. What the file recorded about itself is kept too: a release that was pulled keeps its own words and gains a [YANKED] marker, and the version that [Unreleased] is heading for is named rather than dropped. The sixteen prefixes fold into the six Keep a Changelog categories: New and Added become Added, Update and Improved behavior become Changed, Fix a typo for Fixed. A product sub-heading becomes a bold prefix on each of its entries, since the format has no place for it. The breaking-change block, which three entries refer to by name, stays a block, nested under Changed as a fourth-level heading. Three things the file could not state are now stated: - Dates. Sections stopped carrying one after 6.11, so 6.12 through 7.12.0 had none. They are reconstructed from tags, GitHub releases and Maven Central publication records. 4.6 was recorded as 2006/27/02, and month 27 does not exist; in an era spelling dates YYYY/MM/DD the day and month are swapped, so it reads 2006-02-27. The dates of 4.5 and 5.0 are chronologically impossible and are carried unchanged, because correcting them would be inventing. - 7.5.1. It was released from the release_7.5 branch and never reached this file. Its section is reconstructed from the two commits between the 7.5 and 7.5.1 tags, and sits where its date puts it, between 7.8.0 and 7.7.1. - 5.0.1 was declared twice, in two sections separated by a rule. One version, one section. Comparison links close the file for the 50 versions whose boundaries are both tagged. 7.1.0 is not among them: it was published to Maven Central and never tagged. Each link's base is the release the section's changes are measured against, read from the release lineage rather than from the section above it. For a release made from master that base is also a Git ancestor; it is not for 7.5.1, whose branch forked before the 7.5 tag, and 7.5...7.5.1 is a divergent comparison that still shows exactly the two commits that release shipped. Ordering by section would have compared 7.8.0 against 7.5.1 and answered with 150 commits of divergence instead of its 25. The header does not claim Semantic Versioning. The version being prepared is a minor one and its own Possible backward incompatible changes block breaks org.testng, not only org.testng.internal, so the header says what the project does instead: a minor release may carry a breaking change, and each is listed in the section that ships it. Around the file: .gitattributes carries the union merge strategy to the new path, so two pull requests can still add a line each without conflicting. AGENTS.md and the pull request template name the new file and its categories. RELEASE_PROCESS.md gains the step that promotes [Unreleased] into a dated section, which until now existed only in the habit of doing it. It runs after tagging, not before, because the promotion adds commits and the tag has to point at what was built -- which is the order 7.12.0 was actually released in. Its tag command adopts a v prefix: the release stays 7.10.0, which is what gradle.properties and Maven Central carry, and v7.10.0 is the name of the ref. Releases up to 7.12.0 carry no prefix, so the first v tag compares against a bare one and the rest follow. It also names the commit the publish workflow built rather than whatever local HEAD happens to be: that workflow is dispatched by hand and checks out the branch head of the moment, while the tagging happens half an hour later. The run is named outright rather than taken as the most recent successful one, which a re-run, a staged USER_MANAGED run or a second dispatch of the same version would each satisfy, and its conclusion and the version its commit declares are both checked before the tag is written. Promoting the changelog now starts by diffing it against that commit. A pull request merging while Central syncs leaves its entry under Unreleased with its code outside the artifacts, and dating the section wholesale would file that work under a version that never carried it while removing it from the one that will. README.md now points at the changelog above its list of mailing list announcements, which it keeps: the archive makes a single release hard to find, which is why the list exists. The release step that updated README.md is now about that list alone -- the four other things it named, a Maven example, a Gradle example, download links and version badges, are none of them in that file -- and it moves after the announcement, which is when the thread it links to starts existing.
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CHANGES.txtheld twenty years of releases in a format that grew by accretion. It is nowCHANGELOG.md, following Keep a Changelog 1.1.0.No issue asks for this, so there is nothing to close.
What the old file looked like
Measured, not estimated: 93 sections under six different heading shapes (
7.12.0,7.5,6.9.11:,6.9.13.5 (Bad release),6.9.13.6,Current (7.13.0)), 51 dates in five formats,sixteen entry prefixes where Keep a Changelog has six, and product sub-headings that split a
version between core, the Eclipse plug-in and the IDEA plug-in.
The conversion carries everything
Every entry, sub-bullet, issue reference and attribution is carried word for word. Checks:
GITHUB-andTESTNG-references come out at 760 — none lost, none invented;bullets + the 1 reconstructed 7.5.1 entry;
###heading is one of the six Keep a Changelog categories, and no section departs fromtheir canonical order.
The sixteen prefixes fold in:
NewandAdded→ Added;UpdateandImproved behavior→Changed;
Fix, a typo, → Fixed. A product sub-heading becomes a bold prefix on itsentries. The breaking-change block, which three entries refer to by name, stays a block, nested
under
### Changedas a fourth-level heading.Three things the file could not state, and now does
reconstructed from tags, GitHub releases and Maven Central publication records. 4.6 was recorded
as
2006/27/02— month 27 does not exist, and in an era spelling datesYYYY/MM/DDthe day andmonth are swapped, so it reads
2006-02-27. The dates of 4.5 and 5.0 are chronologicallyimpossible and are carried unchanged, because correcting them would be inventing rather than
converting.
release_7.5branch and never reached this file. Its sectionis reconstructed from the two commits between the
7.5and7.5.1tags — a release commit and acherry-pick of the Zip Slip fix — and sits where its date puts it, between 7.8.0 and 7.7.1.
Releases that were pulled keep their own wording and gain a
[YANKED]marker. Comparison linksclose the file for the 50 versions whose boundaries are both tagged; 7.1.0 is not among them,
because it was published to Maven Central and never tagged.
Each link's base is the release the section's changes are measured against, taken from the release
lineage rather than from the section above it. For every release made from
masterthat base isalso a Git ancestor. It is not for 7.5.1:
release_7.5forked before the 7.5 tag, so7.5...7.5.1is a divergent comparison — one that still shows exactly the two commits that release shipped, the
release commit and the Zip Slip backport, which is what the section describes. Ordering by section
would have compared 7.8.0 against 7.5.1 instead: a merge base back in December 2021, and 150
commits of divergence in place of the 25 that release delivered.
The header does not claim Semantic Versioning. The version being prepared is a minor one, and its
own
Possible backward incompatible changesblock breaksorg.testngrather than onlyorg.testng.internal—ITestContext.getInjectorFactory(),XmlTest.getName(), the@NullMarkedwidening. So the header states what the project does instead of a guarantee it does not keep.
TESTNG-nnnreferences are deliberately left as plain text. They are keys of the OpenSymphony JIRAthe project used before 2011 —
CHANGES.txtitself carrieshttps://jira.opensymphony.com/browse/TESTNG-45— and the same numbers name unrelated GitHubissues, so linking them would produce 87 wrong links.
Around the file
.gitattributescarries theunionmerge strategy to the new path, so two pull requests canstill add a line each without conflicting.
.vale.iniexempts the changelog before the rename lands, in its own commit. The fileescaped Vale only by being
*.txt; as Markdown it produced 1115 findings on its own. Thepattern needs its
**/prefix — the Gradle task passes absolute paths, and a bare[CHANGELOG.md]section matches only a relative one, so it reads as working while checkingnothing. Measured through
writingStyleCheck: 1115 findings before, 0 after, repository totaldown from 1809 to 694, and every other Markdown reports what it reported.
AGENTS.mdnames the new file and its six categories, and records a hazard the old format didnot have:
unionmerge takes both sides of a concurrent edit, so two pull requests that each openthe same missing
###subsection land two copies of that heading, silently.docs/RELEASE_PROCESS.mdgains the step that promotes## [Unreleased]into a dated section,which until now existed only in the habit of doing it. It runs after tagging, because the
promotion adds commits and the tag has to point at what was built — the order 7.12.0 was actually
released in. Its tag command adopts a
vprefix: the release stays7.10.0, whichis what
gradle.propertiesand Maven Central carry, andv7.10.0is the name of the ref.Releases up to
7.12.0carry none, so the firstvtag compares against a bare one and the restfollow. The step that updated
README.mdnarrows to the one thing that file still carries: four of the fiveit named — a Maven example, a Gradle example, download links, version badges — are none of them
there. It also moves after the announcement, which is when the thread it links to starts existing.
The tag step names the publish run outright rather than taking the newest successful one, which a
re-run, a staged
USER_MANAGEDrun or a second dispatch of the same version would each satisfy,and checks both its conclusion and the version its commit declares. Promotion then starts by
diffing the changelog against that commit: a pull request merging while Central syncs leaves its
entry under
Unreleasedwith its code outside the artifacts, and dating the section wholesalewould file that work under a version that never carried it.
README.mdpoints at the changelog above its list of mailing list announcements, and keepsthe list: the archive makes a single release hard to find, which is what the list is for.
What this costs the open pull requests
Three of the other open pull requests touch
CHANGES.txt(#3451, #3453, #3459) and willconflict. Resolving one is mechanical: move the entry into the
###subsection it belongs to under## [Unreleased]. It was six: #3491, #3450, #3452 and #3502 have merged since, and this branchpicked each of their entries up by regenerating. Only merging this stops the count from moving.
Not done, worth doing next
Nothing checks the changelog's structure. A verification task asserting that headings under
[Unreleased]are among the six, that none is duplicated, and that no entry is added under a datedsection would close both the
unionmerge hazard above and theAGENTS.mdrule that is otherwiseunenforced — in a repository that checks every other contribution rule it writes down. It is a new
Gradle task, so it is not in this pull request.
Verification
./gradlew buildpasses, with 0 failures and 0 errors.autostyleCheckandwritingStyleCheckpass, the latter reporting 0 findings forCHANGELOG.md.git check-attr merge CHANGELOG.mdanswersunion. No reference toCHANGES.txtremains anywhere in the tree.