Guide to Changelogs

Note: This guide thanks to friends from /vg/.

Changelogs are small YAML files that developers create to add their pull requests' changes to the master changelog.html file. A python script run by a maintainer collects all the changes specified and generates the HTML necessary, merging changes by the same author during the same day.

The idea is to reduce merge conflicts caused by two PRs trying to edit the same file.

Creating a Changelog

Pull Requests

PR changelogs are temporary and just get deleted after they're merged into the master changelog.

1. Create html/changelogs/USERNAME-PR-###.yml, where ### is the number or ID of your PR.
2. Copy the contents of this.
3. Fill it out.
   • Make sure to set delete-after to true.
4. PROOFREAD. Changelog entries are final after they're merged.
5. Add it to git so it's included with your PR.

Maintainer Changelogs

Maintainers can have their own changelogs. Follow the same directions as above, but use USERNAME.yml and leave delete-after false.

Updating the Changelog

Only maintainers need to do this.

• First, install python 2.7, pip, and PyYaml:
  • After installing python and ensuring it and its Scripts/ folder is in PATH, download and run get-pip.py with python.
  • pip install PyYaml
  • pip install bs4
• With /tg/station's code, simply run makeChangelog.bat.
• On Linux or other codebases, run python tools/ss13_genchangelog.py html/changelog.html html/changelogs

Screwed up Changelog

If a changelog needs to be edited after merge, a maintainer will need to edit the html/changelogs/.all_changelog.yml file in order to fix the database. (This file is hidden on Linux and Mac OSX.)