Dealing with bug reports
On Sat, May 12, 2001 at 05:02:44PM +0900, Junichi Uekawa wrote:
> Taral <taral@taral.net> cum veritate scripsit:
>
> > I recently filed a bug which the maintainer insists on closing with
> > "Sorry, but this works." It is a real problem on my system, and I
> > consider it somewhat irresponsible of the maintainer to continue to
> > close the bug. What are the developer guidelines on this, and what can I
> > do (besides reopening it) if this problem persists?
>
> I think the technical committee exists to solve this kind of situation.
I don't agree.
I think this is more of a social issue than a technical one. It goes
beyond this one bug report, and beyond the one developer in question.
The issue is how do we, as a group, respond to bug reports.
If you get a bug report on a package you maintain, there is clearly
pressure to deal with it quickly. Fewer bugs are better than more
bugs. IMO, however, there is also an implicit contract to deal with
each report responsibly.
The maintainer's responsibility includes making an honest effort to
understand what the bug reporter is saying. Sometimes a report is
garbled beyond all comprehension. In such a case, it is okay to ask
for more information. It is not okay to simply say "I'm closing this
bug because I don't know what you're talking about".
Sometimes the bug is not exhibited on your system. Simply closing a
report saying "there is no bug" is not helpful. It may be true that
the submitter is mistaken; alternatively, it may be that there is an
interaction between components that masks the problem on your system.
It may be hard to judge which is the case, based on the bug report.
As another responder to this thread has already pointed out, there is
a reason that the "unreproducible" (and "moreinfo") tags exist.
Regards,
-Steve
--
by Rocket to the Moon,
by Airplane to the Rocket,
by Taxi to the Airport,
by Frontdoor to the Taxi,
by throwing back the blanket and laying down the legs ...
- They Might Be Giants
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