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Re: Upcoming Debian Releases



[ Please don't Cc: me when replying to my message on a mailing list. ]

Buddha Buck:
> Many people use the bug-tracking system as their to-do list.

This is a good thing, I think. It is easier for users to see what
problems a package has, and if the maintainer vanishes, a new
maintainer can more easily pick things up.

> I believe I suggested automating this process by including a 
> "critical-on:" field in subreports that could be set for as much as 12 
> months in the future, and reset for only 3 months in the future.

I tend to be suspicious of things that require fortune telling...
Wouldn't it suffice to introduce a Severity field, which could
be set to "critical" at once? I find this simpler, and simplicity
is usually better. It's also more general, since it allows for
more severity levels than just critical/non-critical. I'd suggest
at least the following:

	forwarded	bug report has been forwarded to upstream
			maintainer, and the package is usable while
			we wait for the fix

	feature-request	request of feature or other enhancement,
			which don't affect the usability of the
			package; Debian maintainer of the package
			expects to be able to provide the feature
			herself, instead of forwarding it
	
	upload-pending	bug is fixed in maintainer's development
			version, but the new package has not yet
			been uploaded

	unknown		default level for all new packages; no need
			be changed for most packages, especially if
			bug is closed quickly
	
	important	bug makes package unusable, but doesn't affect
			important parts of the system (meaning that
			most people won't be affected); bug should be
			fixed if package is to be part of the next
			release
	
	critical	bug makes important parts of the system not
			work correctly (most people will be affected),
			and must be fixed before the next release (and
			preferably today)
	
	security-hole	bug compromises system security and must be
			fixed very quickly, preferably within hours

These are more or less in priority order.

The bug system would need to provide lists of bugs in each category,
of course.

-- 
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Please don't Cc: me when replying to my message on a mailing list.


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