DOC-7118 unit 6: convert rc changelog/ to render hooks - #4122

Summary

Unit 6 of DOC-7118: converts content/operate/rc/changelog/** from Hugo relref shortcode links and note/warning/tip/info callout shortcodes to the DOC-6909 render-hook equivalents (plain Markdown links + > [!NOTE] blockquotes). Part of the ongoing series that has already converted every other product directory under content/operate/ and content/develop/. Units 1-4 are open as PRs #4118, #4119, #4120, #4121. Unit 7 (rdi/) is intentionally parked for later.

• 47 files in scope, 41 changed (6 _index.md/month pages had no relref or callout syntax and are legitimate no-ops, confirmed by direct grep — not silent tool failures).
• 202 relref occurrences converted to plain canonical /content/<path>.md[#anchor] links.
• 3 note callouts converted to > [!NOTE] blockquotes (all in may-2026.md x2 and 2023/august-2023.md x1).
• Ran build/check_uncanonicalized_links.py --fix on the unit: found and fixed 12 bare-link instances, all in content/operate/rc/changelog/2023/march-2023.md — the {{< relref "/commands" >}}?group=X no-separating-slash idiom (relref's implicit trailing slash followed by a literal ?group= suffix), which migrate_shortcode_links.py's linkify stage doesn't canonicalize on its own. Re-ran after fixing: 0 FIXABLE / 0 MOUNT_ONLY / 0 DEAD remain across all 47 files.
• Checked for the other known unit-to-unit gotchas: no list-nested callouts, no unspaced shortcode forms ({{<note>}}), no unusual closing-tag spacing ({{</ note >}}), and spot-checked cross-changelog links (e.g. july-2025.md → version-release-notes/8-0.md, 2023/august-2023.md → 2024/may-2024.md, 2024/november-2024.md → 2023/june-2023.md#redis-72-breaking-changes) — all resolve to the correct month/version page and existing anchor.

Build verification (the changelog-specific caveat)

build/diff_rendered_hrefs.py excludes operate/rc/changelog/** from href comparison by default because the Hugo build is non-deterministic there even with zero input change. Per the task's required procedure, ran with --no-ignore-noisy and characterized baseline noise first:

Step 2 — mainA vs mainB (origin/main built twice, no code change), --no-ignore-noisy operate/rc/changelog:

compared 70 vs 70 pages under prefix 'operate/rc/changelog'
only in before: 0
only in after:  0
href set changed: 1
  ~ operate/rc/changelog/2023/march-2023/index.html

Root cause: 2023/march-2023.md has headings that embed a Markdown link (e.g. #### [Cluster management commands](...)). Hugo's heading-slug generator bakes the link's rendered href text into the anchor ID, and in the pre-conversion source that text included Hugo's internal per-build raw-shortcode placeholder counter (hugoshortcode3759 vs hugoshortcode3760 between the two identical builds) — i.e., the anchor ID was already unstable build-to-build before any change here.

Step 3 — before (mainA) vs after (this branch), same scope:

compared 70 vs 70 pages under prefix 'operate/rc/changelog'
only in before: 0
only in after:  0
href set changed: 1
  ~ operate/rc/changelog/2023/march-2023/index.html

Same single page, same root cause: converting {{< relref "/commands" >}}?group=cluster to the literal /content/commands?group=cluster removes the shortcode-placeholder residue from the anchor slug, so the ID changes from one unstable/garbled form to a stable-but-different one (e.g. #cluster-management-commandshahahugoshortcode3760s1hbhbgroupcluster → #cluster-management-commandscontentcommandsgroupcluster). Confirmed via direct grep of the full mainA build that nothing else in the site links to the old anchor (only the page's own rendered HTML and its own docs.ndjson entry contain that string) — so this is accounted-for noise, not a regression, and matches exactly the page/mechanism flagged by the step-2 baseline.

No other page in either diff shows a href-set change. Full-site make ci builds (page counts, for confirmation) succeeded cleanly for origin/main (built twice) and this branch — all three builds rendered 19642 pages with no errors, run as separate foreground builds (an earlier attempt to run two builds concurrently caused a spurious template timeout from CPU contention on develop/data-types/streams/_index.md, unrelated to this unit's content — resolved by rerunning that build alone).

Test plan

• build/migrate_shortcode_links.py all run on all 47 files; diffed each against pre-conversion snapshot to confirm real changes (not silent no-ops) on the 41 that had shortcode syntax
• Grepped for list-nested/indented callouts, unspaced shortcode forms, and unusual closing-tag spacing — none found
• build/check_uncanonicalized_links.py --fix — found and fixed 12 bare-link instances, confirmed 0 remain after
• Spot-checked cross-changelog links resolve to the correct month/version page and anchor
• Baseline noise (mainA vs mainB) and before-vs-after diffs both run with --no-ignore-noisy operate/rc/changelog, and reconciled (single page, fully explained root cause)
• Full-site make ci builds succeeded (19642 pages) for both main and this branch
• git status confirms only the 47 files in scope were touched (41 with actual diffs)

Refs DOC-7118.

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