📝💄 Split the "process" change log entry to 3

Previously, the change log had a section called "Process". And some of
the incoming pull requests would add change notes there when they
couldn't be put into other categories. Using it like that is not a
good idea. This patch rethinks the categorization and the audiences of
a few common change types and defines respective categories that
replace "Process".

The new categories are:

  * `packaging` -- news for downstream re-packagers

  * `contrib` -- news for regular project participants

  * `misc` -- public change log for things that don't fit anywhere but
    are useful

Resolves #12555

.pre-commit-config.yaml

@@ -65,9 +65,45 @@ repos:
   - id: news-fragment-filenames
     name: NEWS fragment
     language: fail
-    entry: NEWS fragment files must be named *.(process|removal|feature|bugfix|vendor|doc|trivial).rst
-    exclude: ^news/(.gitignore|.*\.(process|removal|feature|bugfix|vendor|doc|trivial).rst)
+    entry: >-
+      NEWS fragment files must be named
+      ####.(
+      removal
+      |feature
+      |bugfix
+      |vendor
+      |doc
+      |packaging
+      |contrib
+      |misc
+      |trivial
+      )(.#)?(.rst)?
+    exclude: >-
+      (?x)
+      ^
+        news/(
+          \.gitignore
+          |(\d+|[0-9a-f]{8}|[0-9a-f]{7}|[0-9a-f]{40}|\+[^.]+)\.(
+            removal
+            |feature
+            |bugfix
+            |vendor
+            |doc
+            |packaging
+            |contrib
+            |misc
+            |trivial
+          )(\.\d+)?(\.rst)?
+          |[0-9a-zA-Z-_]+\.vendor(\.\d+)?(\.rst)?  # special-case vendoring
+          |README\.rst
+          |\.towncrier-template\.rst\.j2
+        )
+      $
     files: ^news/
+    types: []
+    types_or:
+    - file
+    - symlink
 
 ci:
   autofix_prs: false

docs/html/development/contributing.rst

@@ -110,8 +110,8 @@ public is concerned, typo fixes, white space modification, etc. To mark a PR
 as trivial a contributor simply needs to add a randomly named, empty file to
 the ``news/`` directory with the extension of ``.trivial.rst``. If you are on a
 POSIX like operating system, one can be added by running
-``touch news/$(uuidgen).trivial.rst``. On Windows, the same result can be
-achieved in Powershell using ``New-Item "news/$([guid]::NewGuid()).trivial.rst"``.
+``touch news/+$(uuidgen).trivial.rst``. On Windows, the same result can be
+achieved in Powershell using ``New-Item "news/+$([guid]::NewGuid()).trivial.rst"``.
 Core committers may also add a "skip news" label to the PR which will accomplish
 the same thing.
 
@@ -126,6 +126,25 @@ otherwise notable can be done using a ``news/<name>.process.rst`` file. This is
 not typically used, but can be used for things like changing version schemes,
 updating deprecation policy, etc.
 
+Changes to the packaging metadata and tooling of pip itself should be documented
+in :file:`news/{<name>}.packaging.rst` files. This can include notes for
+downstreams about unobvious side effects and tooling, as well as changes in the
+test invocation considerations and runtime assumptions.
+
+When your change is something that influence how contributors and core
+committers interact with the project, record that and actionable updates via a
+:file:`news/{<name>}.contrib.rst` file. Stuff that affects the contributor
+experience, like running tests, building the docs, setting up the development
+environment would go here. It's useful for occasional contributors to learn the
+gist of what's changed since the last time they were active.
+
+If you feel like that your change would affect the end-users in noticeable ways
+but it's difficult to assign any of the above categories to it, it is possible
+to add a :file:`news/{<name>}.misc.rst` file to still present the change's
+effect in the change log. Unlike :file:`news/{<name>}.trivial.rst` entries, this
+change log fragment type will show up publicly in the released change log
+document.
+
 
 Updating your branch
 ====================

news/.gitignore

@@ -1 +1,29 @@
+*
 !.gitignore
+!*.bugfix
+!*.bugfix.rst
+!*.bugfix.*.rst
+!*.contrib
+!*.contrib.rst
+!*.contrib.*.rst
+!*.doc
+!*.doc.rst
+!*.doc.*.rst
+!*.feature
+!*.feature.rst
+!*.feature.*.rst
+!*.misc
+!*.misc.rst
+!*.misc.*.rst
+!*.packaging
+!*.packaging.rst
+!*.packaging.*.rst
+!*.removal
+!*.removal.rst
+!*.removal.*.rst
+!*.trivial
+!*.trivial.rst
+!*.trivial.*.rst
+!*.trivial
+!*.vendor.rst
+!*.vendor.*.rst

news/12555.contrib.rst

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+12853.contrib.rst

news/12853.contrib.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+Added separate changelog fragment types for contributor-
+and downstream-facing patches, as well as a catch-all
+miscellaneous section.
+
+Their corresponding identifiers are ``contrib`` and ``packaging``
+respectively. They are meant to be used for more accurate
+classification, where one would resort to using ``misc`` otherwise.

pyproject.toml

@@ -94,7 +94,19 @@ type = [
   { name = "Bug Fixes",                                   directory = "bugfix",    showcontent = true },
   { name = "Vendored Libraries",                          directory = "vendor",    showcontent = true },
   { name = "Improved Documentation",                      directory = "doc",       showcontent = true },
-  { name = "Process",                                     directory = "process",   showcontent = true },
+
+  # Notes for downstreams about unobvious side effects and tooling. Changes
+  # in the test invocation considerations and runtime assumptions.
+  { name = "Packaging updates and notes for downstreams", directory = "packaging", showcontent = true },
+
+  # Stuff that affects the contributor experience. e.g. Running tests,
+  # building the docs, setting up the development environment.
+  { name = "Contributor-facing changes",                  directory = "contrib",   showcontent = true },
+
+  # Changes that are hard to assign to any of the above categories.
+  { name = "Miscellaneous internal changes",              directory = "misc",      showcontent = true },
+
+  # A way for the contributors to fool the changelog fragment presence check.
   { name = "Trivial Changes",                             directory = "trivial",   showcontent = false },
 ]