What is "changelog"

n. (context computing English) A log that records changes between versions, as in source control.

A changelog is a log or record of all or all notable changes made to a project. The project is often a website or software project, and the changelog usually includes records of changes such as bug fixes, new features, etc. Some open source projects include a changelog as one of the top level files in their distribution.

A changelog has historically included all changes made to a project. The "Keep a CHANGELOG" site instead advocates that a changelog not include all changes, but that it should instead contain "a curated, chronologically ordered list of notable changes for each version of a project" and should not be a "dump" of a git log "because this helps nobody".

Although the canonical naming convention for the file is ChangeLog, it is sometimes alternatively named as CHANGES or HISTORY (NEWS is usually a different file reflecting changes between releases, not between the commits). Another convention is to call it a CHANGELOG. Some project maintainers will append a .txt suffix to the file name if it is in simple text, or append a .md suffix if it is in markdown format.

Some revision control systems are able to generate the relevant information that is suited as a changelog if the goal is to include all changes.