Bug#301739: All e-mails to <bug_num@bugs.debian.org> should be forwarded to the upstream -devel list or maintainer
Package: debbugs
Severity: normal
(This cannot be implemented before bug 34071 is dealt with, but this is a separate issue.)
AFAIK, when a bug is submitted to submit@bugs.debian.org, the debbugs server sends the package maintainer a copy of the bug report, and the package maintainer soon sends a copy to the upstream -devel mailing list, e.g. bash-devel or xemacs-devel, or the upstream maintainer.
However, when someone sends in extra information on an existing bug, I doubt this info always makes its way upstream.
Once a "bug subscription" feature (bug #34071) is added to debbugs, it would help get bugs fixed faster if the upstream -devel list or maintainer were automatically subscribed to get any additional info on the bug that people come up with. This would require that the package tracking system keep track of the e-mail address of the upstream -devel list for all packages that have such a list.
(It would also be useful if the BTS recognized a special set of aliases, say upstream-gw-<pkg_name>@bugs.debian.org, and if package maintainers were able to subscribe the upstream-gw alias for their packages to the relevant -devel lists. This way, the BTS could forward info even to lists that only allow list subscribers to post messages. Perhaps it could even store replies from -devel lists back into the relevant bug page at bugs.debian.org by looking at the X-Debian-PR-Message header field.)
Once upstream -devel lists or maintainers automatically get copies of additionalinfo on upstream bugs, communication will be improved and some upstream bugs will get fixed sooner.
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