move changelog section up higher.

Add notion of commenting for reviewers and taking care to not break
platforms one cannot test on.

1 files changed, 19 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/HACKING b/HACKING
index 5ddaddb1..7743ee80 100644
--- a/HACKING
+++ b/HACKING
@@ -12,6 +12,25 @@ Generally, GNU coding standards apply.  The indentation style is a bit
 different from standard GNU style, and the existing style should be
 maintained and used for new code.
 
+Be particularly careful not to break platforms/protocols that you
+cannot test.
+
+New code should have good comments, and changes to existing code
+should in many cases upgrade the comments when necessary for a
+reviewer to conclude that the change has no unintended consequences.
+
+CHANGELOG
+
+Add a ChangeLog entry whenever changing code, except for minor fixes
+to a commit (with a ChangeLog entry) within the last few days.
+
+There is at present a mixed style for ChangeLog, with some changes
+being described in per-directory ChangeLog files, and some at top
+level.
+
+[TBD: resolve per-dir vs top-level, perhaps by reading GNU coding
+standards]
+
 PATCH SUBMISSION
 
 * Send a clean diff against the head of CVS.
@@ -68,10 +87,6 @@ tested are:
   ospfd
   ripngd
 
-CHANGELOG
-
-[TBD: when to add to per-dir Changelog, when to add to top-level]
-
 IMPORT OR UPDATE VENDOR SPECIFIC ROUTING PROTOCOLS
 
 The source code of Quagga is based on two vendors: