include the commit id in the changelog entry

2 files changed, 19 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/docs/chapters/releases.sgml b/docs/chapters/releases.sgml
index 4e1874b4..1130d1d3 100644
--- a/docs/chapters/releases.sgml
+++ b/docs/chapters/releases.sgml
@@ -93,9 +93,18 @@ Thanks: cool upstream
 </screen>
     would result in a changelog entry
 <screen>
-    * New upstream version (Closes: #1000) - thanks to cool upstream    
+    * New upstream version (Closes: #1000) - thanks to cool upstream
 </screen>
 You can use multiple <option>Closes:</option> tags.
+</para><para>
+Often changelog entries correspond to a single &git; commit. In this case it's
+convenient to include the commit id in the chagenlog entry. This can be done
+via the <option>--id-length</option> option. Using
+<option>--id-length</option>=<replaceable>7</replaceable>  would change the above example to:
+<screen>
+    * [571bfd4] New upstream version (Closes: #1000) - thanks to cool upstream
+</screen>
+This makes it much easier to see which commit actually fixed bug #1000.
 </para>
 </sect1>
 </chapter>
diff --git a/docs/manpages/git-dch.sgml b/docs/manpages/git-dch.sgml
index acc2e5c8..727eabf2 100644
--- a/docs/manpages/git-dch.sgml
+++ b/docs/manpages/git-dch.sgml
@@ -144,6 +144,15 @@
           <para>options passed on verbatim to git-log(1)</para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
+      <varlistentry>
+        <term><option>--id-length=</option><replaceable>N</replaceable>
+        </term>
+        <listitem>
+	  <para>include <replaceable>N</replaceable> digits of the commit id in
+	  the changelog enty. Default is to not include any commit ids at
+	  all.</para>
+        </listitem>
+      </varlistentry>
     </variablelist>
   </refsect1>
   <refsect1>