A NEWS file listing new functions added between two specific versions can be generated automatically using the script run_generate_news.sh under ver_devel/util/. For example, to generate a NEWS for the version v2.1-0, we first check what versions are availabe before v2.1-0 by following command:

#!r
$ git tag
# v1.1-5
# v1.1-6
# v2.0
# v2.0-1
# v2.1-0

To generate NEWS since v2.0, type following commands:

#!r
$ cd ver_devel/util
$ ./run_generate_news.sh v2.0 v2.1-0

Finally, open the NEWS file with a text editor, check the list of functions and their description, and tidy up the contents manually based on your own judgement (e.g. remove insignificant changes, combine generic functions with their S3 methods, and improve function descriptions).

Known problems:

Some old commits don't follow the convention for commit message writing, i.e. always starting with one of "NEW: ", "BUGFIX: ", "ENHANCEMENT: " and "OTHER: " in the commit message. In this case, some new functions will not be listed in the NEWS file. To solve this problem, try following command, which basically skip filtering message head and list all functions designated as "A" (add) in each commit:

#!r
./run_generate_news.sh v2.0 v2.1-0 ""