Re: Forwarding bugs upstream

[Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

Felipe Sateler writes ("Re: Forwarding bugs upstream"):
> On Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:56:56 +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:
> > I think it is always reasonable for the maintainer to forward the bug
> > upstream.
> > 
> > But what I think is bad is _demanding_ or _requiring_ the maintainer to
> > forward the bug upstream.  If they don't want to do that for whatever
> > reason then asking the submitter to do so is IMO perfectly acceptable.
> 
> We can't demand or require anyone to do anything. Yet we expect 
> maintainers to answer bug reports, provide packages, etc. The fact that 
> you can't force anyone to do anything doesn't mean you can't say that 
> some behavior is preferred or considered best practice.

Yes.

But in this case I don't think we should be "expecting" maintainers to
necessarily shepherd bug reports upstream.  I don't think a maintainer
who fails to do so is failing in their job as maintainer.

The maintainer should decide whether they think doing that is a useful
thing to be doing for that package or that bug, and communicate this
decision to the user (and set the bug state accordingly).

Ian.