Auto merge of #4372 - phansch:changelog_update, r=flip1995

docs: Explain how to update the changelog

cc @Manishearth Is this more or less how you did it last time?

[Rendered](https://github.com/phansch/rust-clippy/blob/changelog_update/doc/changelog_update.md#changelog-update)

changelog: none

1 files changed, 68 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/changelog_update.md b/doc/changelog_update.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cabf25135da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/changelog_update.md
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+# Changelog Update
+
+If you want to help with updating the [changelog][changelog], you're in the right place.
+
+## When to update
+
+Typos and other small fixes/additions are _always_ welcome.
+
+Special care needs to be taken when it comes to updating the changelog for a new
+Rust release. For that purpose, the changelog is ideally updated during the week
+before an upcoming stable release. You can find the release dates on the [Rust
+Forge][forge].
+
+Most of the time we only need to update the changelog for minor Rust releases. It's
+been very rare that Clippy changes were included in a patch release.
+
+## How to update
+
+### 1. Finding the relevant Clippy commits
+
+Each Rust release ships with its own version of Clippy. The Clippy submodule can
+be found in the [tools][tools] directory of the Rust repository.
+
+To find the Clippy commit hash for a specific Rust release you select the Rust
+release tag from the dropdown and then check the commit of the Clippy directory:
+
+![Explanation of how to find the commit hash](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2042399/62846160-1f8b0480-bcce-11e9-9da8-7964ca034e7a.png)
+
+When writing the release notes for the upcoming stable release you want to check
+out the commit of the current Rust `beta` tag.
+
+### 2. Fetching the PRs between those commits
+
+You'll want to run `util/fetch_prs_between.sh commit1 commit2 > changes.txt`
+and open that file in your editor of choice.
+
+* `commit1` is the Clippy commit hash of the previous stable release
+* `commit2` is the Clippy commit hash of the release you want to write the changelog for.
+
+When updating the changelog it's also a good idea to make sure that `commit1` is
+already correct in the current changelog.
+
+### 3. Authoring the final changelog
+
+The above script should have dumped all the relevant PRs to the file you
+specified. It should have filtered out most of the irrelevant PRs
+already, but it's a good idea to do a manual cleanup pass where you look for
+more irrelevant PRs. If you're not sure about some PRs, just leave them in for
+the review and ask for feedback.
+
+With the PRs filtered, you can start to take each PR and move the
+`changelog: ` content to `CHANGELOG.md`. Adapt the wording as you see fit but
+try to keep it somewhat coherent.
+
+The order should roughly be:
+
+1. New lints
+2. Changes that expand what code existing lints cover
+3. ICE fixes
+4. False positive fixes
+5. Suggestion fixes/improvements
+
+Please also be sure to update the Beta/Unreleased sections at the top with the
+relevant commit ranges.
+
+[changelog]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-clippy/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md
+[forge]: https://forge.rust-lang.org/
+[tools]: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/tree/master/src/tools