I never wrote that end users should be presented with change logs; of course, you give them release notes.
Release notes are not logs. They omit changes, and present selected changes in a different order. As soon as you have two sets of release notes for two releases in one file, then it's becoming a log: a log which captures sequences of release notes. I agree of keeping such a thing rather than giving end users just the notes for the current release.
In any case, developers should not be required to deposit any blurbs into any file as they are committing, regardless of its purpose and style.
Do go ahead and produce release notes, and then keep them in the repository. Do not mix code changes with changes to the release notes file.
Release notes are not logs. They omit changes, and present selected changes in a different order. As soon as you have two sets of release notes for two releases in one file, then it's becoming a log: a log which captures sequences of release notes. I agree of keeping such a thing rather than giving end users just the notes for the current release.
In any case, developers should not be required to deposit any blurbs into any file as they are committing, regardless of its purpose and style.
Do go ahead and produce release notes, and then keep them in the repository. Do not mix code changes with changes to the release notes file.