[Python-Dev] Merging 3.2 to 3.3 is messy because "Misc/NEWS"

[Antoine Pitrou]

On Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:21:35 +0100
Jesus Cea <jcea at jcea.es> wrote:
> 
> On 08/11/11 19:51, Terry Reedy wrote:
> > If a bug is fixed in 3.2.latest, then it will not be new in 3.3.0,
> > so perhaps it should not be added there. NEWS could just refer back
> > to previous sections. Then 3.3.0 News would only be new features
> > and the occasional ambiguous item not fixed before.
> 
> I am confused. My usual usage case is this:
> 
> 1. I fix something in 3.2.
> 2. I merge that fix into 3.3. Everything goes smooth except Misc/NEWS.
> 3. Recover the original 3.3 Misc/NEWS, and add manually what I added
> to the 3.2 Misc/NEWS. Mark the file as "resolved" and commit.
> 
> I would like to avoid (3).

You can avoid (3) by resolving the conflict by hand instead.
It isn't as smooth as if the merge had gone through without any
conflict, but I find it relatively painless in practice.

FYI, Twisted has chosen a totally different approach:
http://twistedmatrix.com/trac/wiki/ReviewProcess#Newsfiles

“[...] If we just let each author add to the NEWS files on every
commit, though, we would run into lots of spurious conflicts. To avoid
this, we have come up with a scheme involving separate files for each
change.

Changes must be accompanied by an entry in at least one topfiles
directory. [...]
An entry must be a file named <ticket number>.<change type>. You should
replace <ticket number> with the ticket number which is being resolved
by the change (if multiple tickets are resolved, multiple files with
the same contents should be added)”

Regards

Antoine.