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Software Engineering vocabulary · Release and Maintenance

Changelog

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˈtʃeɪndʒlɔːɡ/nounCommon term

In software engineering, changelog means: A file or page that lists the notable changes in each version of a project, usually with the newest version first. It is often named CHANGELOG.md.

In Turkish: değişiklik günlüğü, değişiklik kaydı

How it is used

More technical and detailed than release notes. A common format groups entries under Added, Changed, Deprecated, Removed, Fixed and Security. Reviewers may ask you to add an entry to the changelog in your pull request.

Example sentences

  1. Please add a line to the changelog under 'Fixed' before we merge.

  2. I checked the changelog, and version 5 removes the old config format.

Common collocations

  • update the changelog
  • changelog entry
  • keep a changelog
  • CHANGELOG.md
  • release notesA short document published with a new version of software that lists new features, bug fixes, known issues and other changes users should know about.
  • semantic versioningA version-numbering rule with three parts, MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH: the first number changes for breaking changes, the second for new features and the third for bug fixes.
  • releaseA version of a product that is made available to users, or the act of making it available. Also a verb: to release a new version.
  • breaking changeA change to an API, library or file format that makes existing code that uses it stop working unless that code is updated too.

More terms: Release and Maintenance

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