If you use RCS or CVS for a program with a ChangeLog file (see Change Logs), you can generate change log entries from the version control log entries of previous commits.
Note that this only works with RCS or CVS. This procedure would be particularly incorrect on a modern changeset-based version control system, where changes to the ChangeLog file would normally be committed as part of a changeset. In that case, you should write the change log entries first, then pull them into the ‘*vc-log*’ buffer when you commit (see Features of the Log Entry Buffer).
Visit the current directory’s ChangeLog file and, for
registered files in that directory, create new entries for versions
committed since the most recent change log entry
(vc-update-change-log).
As above, but only find entries for the current buffer’s file.
For example, suppose the first line of ChangeLog is dated 1999-04-10, and that the only check-in since then was by Nathaniel Bowditch to rcs2log on 1999-05-22 with log entry ‘Ignore log messages that start with '#'.’. Then C-x v a inserts this ChangeLog entry:
1999-05-22 Nathaniel Bowditch <nat@apn.org>
* rcs2log: Ignore log messages that start with '#'.
If the version control log entry specifies a function name (in parenthesis at the beginning of a line), that is reflected in the ChangeLog entry. For example, if a log entry for vc.el is ‘(vc-do-command): Check call-process status.’, the ChangeLog entry is:
1999-05-06 Nathaniel Bowditch <nat@apn.org>
* vc.el (vc-do-command): Check call-process status.
When C-x v a adds several change log entries at once, it groups related log entries together if they all are checked in by the same author at nearly the same time. If the log entries for several such files all have the same text, it coalesces them into a single entry.