[core-workflow] the Misc/NEWS problem

[Brett Cannon]

If we ever want to have a nice workflow where we can automate as much as
possible, we need to figure out a way deal with our most common merge
conflict: Misc/NEWS. Thanks to shifts in the format between different minor
versions the file is pretty much guaranteed to have a conflict when doing a
merge up a version.

So how do we solve this? I can remember 3 possible solutions that have been
proposed previously:

   1. A single file per entry
   2. A single file per release version of Python
   3. Automating it based on commit messages

I personally prefer #3 as I hate repeating myself since I just copy and
paste the first line(s) of my commits to Misc/NEWS as it is anyway
(basically up to the first pair of newlines). We would need a way to signal
that the commit message contains nothing useful for the to-be-generated
NEWS file when it's simply a fix for a previous commit (probably some
marker that is somewhat inconspicuous like a dash on its own line or
something). In terms of the section of the NEWS file that a commit belongs,
that can once again be a marker or honestly something we drop or infer
based on what files were edited in the commit.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/core-workflow/attachments/20150806/788e7d24/attachment.html>