shell commands in ReleaseNotes

Hi,
I noticed that there are small part of commands at the end of a not yet 
released ReleaseNote-*.txt.
 ---
 exec >/var/tmp/1
 O=v1.6.4.1-266-g235db15
 echo O=$(git describe master)
 git shortlog --no-merges $O..master --not maint

As far as I understand it means that the output is redirected to /var/tmp/1. Then there is O set to the last it which was used to generate a shortlog. Then the current desciption (tag+suffix) is printed which can then used to replace the O= line in the small snipped. Then there will be created a shortlog from the last point it was created until master without stuff in maint (or reachable by maint? I am not sure about that one).

Real nice idea to create an overview about changes in a repository for writing a releasenotes. But how is it real used by the maintainer? My current idea would be: Open the editor an copy the snipped. Open a terminal, switch to the repository and go paste the snipped into it. After that the terminal has to be closed as it isn't really useful anymore. An extra editor will be used to open /var/tmp/1 and now the first step is to replace "O=v1.6.4.1-266-g235db15" with a new id at the first line in /var/tmp/1. Now the maintainer has to order all commits a little bit and write the release notes. After he finished it, he just commits it to master and is finished for this period of time. Is this real how it is done in git.git or is there maybe something I don't see right now?

Best regards,
	Resul Cetin