sdk-changelog

name	sdk-changelog
description	Use when generating a customer-facing CHANGELOG between two SDK release tags. Covers how to collect commits from the main repo, changed submodules, and embedded repos (non-submodule git repos like components/wireless/wl80211/src), and how to format the result for external audiences (no commit IDs, no Jira tickets, no internal paths).

SDK CHANGELOG Generator

Overview

Produce a clean, customer-facing CHANGELOG from a git tag range. The output is an overview for end users — no internal identifiers, no implementation noise.

Workflow

1. Collect main repo commits

git log --format="%H|%ad|%an|%s" --date=short <FROM_TAG>..HEAD

Filter out pure bookkeeping commits (chore: record submodules) — they carry no user-visible information.

2. Find changed submodules

# hashes at old tag
git ls-tree <FROM_TAG> --full-tree -r | grep "^160000" > /tmp/sub_old.txt
# hashes at HEAD
git ls-tree HEAD --full-tree -r | grep "^160000" > /tmp/sub_new.txt

Diff the two files to find submodules whose commit pointer changed.

3. Collect submodule commits

For each changed submodule (if checked out locally):

git -C <submodule_path> log --format="%H|%ad|%an|%s" --date=short <OLD_HASH>..<NEW_HASH>

4. Collect embedded repo commits

Some directories are standalone git repos but not tracked as git submodules (e.g., Google repo-managed projects with symlinked .git worktrees). These won't appear in git ls-tree and must be handled separately.

Known embedded repos in this SDK:

Path	Description
components/wireless/wl80211/src	wl80211 WiFi driver core source

Since the parent repo doesn't record the embedded repo's commit, use the <FROM_TAG> date to find the corresponding old commit:

FROM_DATE=$(git log -1 --format=%ad --date=iso-strict <FROM_TAG>)

# For each embedded repo:
EMB_REPO=components/wireless/wl80211/src
OLD_HASH=$(git -C "$EMB_REPO" log -1 --before="$FROM_DATE" --format=%H)
NEW_HASH=$(git -C "$EMB_REPO" rev-parse HEAD)

if [ -n "$OLD_HASH" ] && [ "$OLD_HASH" != "$NEW_HASH" ]; then
  git -C "$EMB_REPO" log --format="%H|%ad|%an|%s" --date=short $OLD_HASH..$NEW_HASH
fi

5. Merge and categorize

Combine all commits (main repo + submodules + embedded repos), deduplicate by subject, then group into:

Category	Commit prefixes
New Features	feat:, feat(*):
Bug Fixes	fix:, fix(*):
Improvements	chore:, refactor:, perf/size wins
Documentation	docs: — omit unless relevant to users

---

Output Template

## [VERSION or Unreleased] — since vX.Y.Z (DATE_FROM → DATE_TO)

### New Features

- **[Chip/Component]**
  - One-line user-visible description
  - ...

- **[Another area]**
  - ...

### Bug Fixes

- **[Area]**
  - Fixed [symptom] in [context]
  - ...

### Improvements

- Reduced code size of ...
- Refactored ... for better maintainability

---

Rules for Customer-Facing Output

Remove	Keep
Commit hashes	Chip/platform names (BL616, BL618DG…)
Jira / internal ticket IDs	Feature names and affected peripherals
Submodule/embedded repo paths	User-visible behavior changes
Author names	Security hardening (summarized)
chore: record submodules entries	Size/performance improvements
Internal code symbols

• Group by functional area, not by submodule or file
• Use plain language; avoid C macro names and file paths
• One bullet = one user-visible change (merge duplicates across submodules)
• Omit doc fixes unless they correct wrong behavior described in docs

---

Quick Example

Given commits like:

feat: add timeout interrupt for 616CL
fix(lp): fix miss lp restore keyram for sec 256   # also in macsw submodule
fix: harden DHCP packet bounds checks             # in wlan/linux_driver submodule

Output:

### New Features
- **BL616CL**: Added timeout interrupt support

### Bug Fixes
- **Low Power**: Fixed missing LP keyram restore for SEC 256 configuration
- **WiFi**: Hardened DHCP packet bounds checks

Note: the LP fix appears in both main repo and macsw submodule — output it once.