Do I need to create a changelog file with Git?

Question

I am new to Git and I am wondering if I need to create a changelog file manually, or if Git keeps track of the changes (I'm using GitHub).

OK, so I don't need to add a changelog file? – William Aug 04 '14 at 17:20 — William, Aug 04 '14 at 17:20

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 04 '14 at 17:16

Git keeps track of the whole history, yes, that’s the purpose of it. You can always access the commit log using git log, or see it for example on GitHub when you have pushed your repository there.

However, those logs will only show you the commits you made, usually being very developer-centric and specific to the implementation. So for public changelogs, you might still want to maintain a user-friendly list of changes.

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:11

The idea is for a version control to provide a good tracking of the changes through the revisions and their commit messages.

That being said, you can also generate an extra changelog file from your commits.
See for instance "Generate your changelogs with Git log".

git log v2.1.0...v2.1.1 --pretty=format:'<li> <a href="http://github.com/jerel/<project>/commit/%H">view commit •</a> %s</li> ' --reverse | grep "#changelog"

"Good ways to manage a changelog using git?"
python script "gitchangelog"

Do I need to create a changelog file with Git?

2 Answers2