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NEWS Entries

NEWS is a short release changelog, not a commit log.

Add

Add an entry for a user-visible or release-worthy:

  • breaking change, feature, or enhancement;
  • bug, security, or memory-safety fix;
  • stable-branch fix or ticketed behavior change.

Skip refactors, tests, CI, and packaging unless release users or packagers need to know.

Describe the behavior, not the branch, review, or test run:

 - #NNNN, [subsystem] Brief behavior summary
          (Contributor Name)

Use #NNNN for Trac, GH-NNN for GitHub, and GT-NNN for Gitea. Do not use bare #NNNN for GitHub or Gitea. Keep subsystem tags consistent with nearby entries.

Credit authors in the final parentheses. For a reported security fix, use reported by ...; fixed by ... when the roles differ. If the reporter supplied the patch, credit the reporter only. Add missing people to Individual Contributors and organizations to Corporate Sponsors.

Place

During development, use the top unreleased section and its existing category. If the section says These are only changes since ..., add only later changes. During release prep, the former top section remains valid if it was unreleased at the target base ref. Do not rewrite the first line of a released bullet without the release manager’s request.

Release Prep

Before tagging:

  1. Set the release date.
  2. Compare NEWS with Git history and the Trac milestone.
  3. Check version and dependency text.
  4. Fix categories; merge or remove small internal notes.
  5. Update doc/release_notes.xml with curated release notes.

Dates containing x are placeholders. Numeric dates must not be future dates and must be in descending order. After release, add the next development section at the top.

Checks

Configured tree:

make check-news
make check-contributor-credits

Unconfigured tree:

python3 -B utils/docs/tests/test_check_news.py
sh utils/docs/check_news.sh .
python3 -B utils/docs/tests/test_check_contributor_credits.py
python3 -B utils/docs/check_contributor_credits.py --repo .

For a PR base-ref check:

utils/docs/check_news.sh --base-ref=origin/master .

The checker allows new bullets only in the current top unreleased section, or in the former top section when it was unreleased at the base ref.

Backpatch

For each target branch, check Version.config and the top NEWS section. Use similar wording across branches, changing release-specific facts. Stable branches usually need bug-fix wording, not new-feature wording.