Proposal for reorganisation of the bug system

[Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>]

Thanks to Bruce for pointing out that I can now have each bug report
have its own address or addresses.  Here is my first idea on what the
new scheme will look like.  Note that until the new scheme is
announced and operational you should continue to use the addresses
@pixar.com.  All the addresses in the text below are @bugs.debian.org.

* bugs: submit a new bug report, or (if a bug number is in the
subject) file new information.  This is the same as
debian-bugs@pixar.com.

* <nnnn>: file additional info about <nnnn> (regardless of what the
Subject says) and send it on to debian-devel.  This address will be
written into the headers of messages sent by the bug system, replacing
bugs@bugs.debian.org where it is found.

* <nnnn>-done, -quiet, -maintonly, -forwarded: do the same as sending
to just done, quiet, maintonly and forwarded (see below), but look for
the bug number in the address.

* quiet: submit a new bug report or file new information without
forwarding it to anyone (the submitter will still get an ack).  This
is like debian-bugs-quiet used to be, before it was changed to forward
the report to the maintainer.  debian-bugs-quiet will be redirected to
here.

* maintonly: submit a new bug report or file new information,
forwarding a copy to the package maintainer - or debian-devel if the
package maintainer can't be found or the package is (eg) `general'.

* server: used to manipulate bug reports.  Commands will be:
    reopen <nnnn>         reopen a bug report
    reassign <nnnn> <pkg> (re)assign a bug to a package
    merge <n> <m> <k> ... merge two or more reports.  The lowest
                          bug number mentioned will become canonical
                          for the new report
 +  close <nnnn>          close a bug report, sending a copy of
                          the request to the original submitter.
    forwarded <nnnn>      mark a report as forwarded
    notforwarded <nnnn>   cancel the `forwarded' mark
 +  send <nnnn>           send a copy of the log for <nnnn>
    getinfo filename      send information file filename
    stop                  }
    --                    } stop processing the message here
 +  quit                  }
    help                  send help text
 (+ indicates a new command.)

The next two addresses are really there for backward compatibility:

* done: mark as done the report given in the subject line, sending
a copy of the message to the submitter with the notification.  This is
like debian-bugs-done@pixar.com.

* forwarded: mark the report whose number is given in the subject line
as forwarded.  An ack is sent to the person who did this, but no
message is sent to the submitter.

Comments ?

Ian.