Re: Filing bugs with upstream

[Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org>]

Ian Wienand wrote:
> So say I've found a bug in Nautilus that exists in upstream.  Gnome
> has a well maintained bugzilla where I can file the bug.  Do I then
> file a Debian bug pointing to the Gnome bugzilla report?  I do I file
> a Debian bug and point the Gnome Bugzilla report to it.  Or do I just
> file a Debian bug and hope the maintiner files one upstream?

There are two possible paths to travel:

 1. File a bug in the Debian bugtracking system.
    Let the maintainer decide what to do (i.e. close it if it is a
    Heisenbug, fix it and pass a patch upstream or pass it upstream,
    maybe by filing an upstream bug as well).

or

 2. File a bug in the upstream bugtracking system.
    You should then file a Debian specific bug in the Debian bts as
    well so that other users know that this bug has been reported and
    can follow it in the upstream BTS.

Which way is better can not be told in general.  The first one would
be the Debian way, but it doesn't work well all the time.  If you need
to decide which path of action to take, you'd be best advised to check
the Debian bugtracking system for bugs that are not Debian-specific.
If you see that they are not dealt with "properly", it may be worth
taking the second course of action.

However, when filing an upstream bug, please check twice that you are
not reporting a Debian-specific bug that doesn't occur when the
software is packaged differently.

Many upstream developers are quite upset about the amount of non-bugs
they receive in response for distributors that have fiddled with the
package in a non-standard way and broken parts of it.  Hence, please
don't bother them more.

There may be good reasons for bugs not passed to upstream at once.  It
may be required by the upstream developer that the issue is clearly
investigated before anything can be done.  Hence, simply forwarding
requests may not be appreciated upstream and could disturb the
relationship between upstream and the Debian maintainer.

Regards,

	Joey

-- 
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