23.7.3.4 Features of the Log Entry Buffer
When you check in changes, C-x v v first reads a log entry. It
pops up a buffer called ‘*VC-Log*’ for you to enter the log entry.
Sometimes the ‘*VC-Log*’ buffer contains default text when you enter it,
typically the last log message entered. If it does, mark and point
are set around the entire contents of the buffer so that it is easy to
kill the contents of the buffer with C-w.
If you work by writing entries in the ChangeLog
(see Change Log) and then commit the change under revision
control, you can generate the Log Edit text from the ChangeLog using
C-c C-a (log-edit-insert-changelog). This looks for
entries for the file(s) concerned in the top entry in the ChangeLog
and uses those paragraphs as the log text. This text is only inserted
if the top entry was made under your user name on the current date.
See Change Logs and VC, for the opposite way of
working—generating ChangeLog entries from the revision control log.
In the ‘*VC-Log*’ buffer, C-c C-f (M-x log-edit-show-files)
shows the list of files to be committed in case you need to check
that. (This can be a list of more than one file if you use VC Dired
mode or PCL-CVS. See VC Dired Mode, and About PCL-CVS.)
When you have finished editing the log message, type C-c C-c to
exit the buffer and commit the change.
To abort check-in, just don't type C-c C-c in that
buffer. You can switch buffers and do other editing. As long as you
don't try to check in another file, the entry you were editing remains
in the ‘*VC-Log*’ buffer, and you can go back to that buffer at any
time to complete the check-in.
If you change several source files for the same reason, it is often
convenient to specify the same log entry for many of the files. To do
this, use the history of previous log entries. The commands M-n,
M-p, M-s and M-r for doing this work just like the
minibuffer history commands (except that these versions are used outside
the minibuffer).
Each time you check in a file, the log entry buffer is put into VC Log
mode, which involves running two hooks: text-mode-hook and
vc-log-mode-hook. See Hooks.
