Re: Getting good bug reports
Brian May writes ("Re: Getting good bug reports"):
> [ explanation of how reportbug is broken right now ]
We could solve this if we can avoid the slippery slope problem.
Or to put it another way, I would have no objection to an http
submission interface to the BTS, provided that everyone understands
and agrees that:
* This interface is to be used only by reportbug
* If any other bug reporting tool is written it needs separate
consensus approval here (consensus as determined by owner@bugs)
* Specifically, no-one is to write any web forms or GUIs which allow
users to file bug reports in the Debian BTS.
Ie, we're purely fixing the deficiencies of reportbug.
On a technical level, I would suggest that the submission interface
should contain a submission agent and version string which reportbug
should set to its own package name and version. This string should
not be checked by default by the submission server but there should be
provision for an administratively applied blacklist.
Then if someone (Nabble?) does violate our expectations, we'll be able
to block them (by releasing a new version of reportbug, if the
miscreants hijack our version string).
Obviously the return from the submission interface wouldn't be an HTML
page. It would be a success indication, or a plain text error
message.
Ian.
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