New initiative: rpm autospec phase 2

What is this initiative about?

The goal of this change is to deploy in production the rpmautospec project.

With it, the content of the Release and %changelog fields in spec files can be auto-generated, either locally or in the builder using the information present in the git repo (in the form of git tags).

Note: This proposal is about changing the way the Release and %changelog sections of the spec files are filled, not about removing them from the SRPM or binary RPM.

Why this initiative?

Easier packaging in Fedora for the packagers who opt-in.

The Release and %changelog fields are the two most conflicting fields in RPM spec files. They impact most pull requests if they involve updating the package or if the package is updated/rebuilt while pull-request are being reviewed.

We currently have three different change logs per package and while they target different audiences (package maintainer: git, sysadmin: %changelog and end-user: bodhi notes) they overlap a lot and in most cases are redundant. With this proposal, package maintainers will only have to cope with two changelogs: git and bodhi notes.

Definition of success

• Finish the work on the %autorel macro to support some of the use cases not implemented currently
• Adjust the packaging so rpmautospec does not live in a specific, versionized python * environment (and thus could be use to bootstrap python)
• Adjust rpmdev-bumpspec (used by releng for mass-rebuilds) so it ignores spec files using %autorel/%autochangelog
• Adjust the mass-rebuild script so it only adds a suitable git commit log message for spec files using %autorel/%autochangelog
• Adjust fedpkg to skip the NEVR check when using rpmautospec
• Add dependency on rpmautospec on redhat-rpm-config

Area/community impacted

Fedora Packagers

Dependencies

Do this initiative have any dependencies?
Packager experience would be beneficial

Deadline

Work to commence pending fesco ticket decision https://pagure.io/fesco/issue/2582