Re: Forwarding bugs upstream

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org>]

On 01/12/2011 12:52 AM, Nikita V. Youshchenko wrote:
> > I understand that maintainers' time is limited and that forwarding bugs
> > is not an enjoyable task.  But I also understand that having a BTS
> > account for the upstream BTS of each of the 2405 packages I have
> > installed on my laptop (not to mention my other machines) is simply not
> > practical.  I also don't have the benefit of the rapport that a
> > maintainer has with upstream and knowledge of upstream practices.
>
> Upstream tend to request users to install latest and greatest versions,
> often for source or using other unsafe methods. Not only for package in
> question but also for explicit and implicit dependences. Non-technical
> follow these broken advices and break their systems. And then complain
> that Debian is problematic for them.

Not all upstreams are like that, but I think that brings to the front an 
important point: there are vast differences in users, in upstreams, and 
in maintainers.

So let's run out your scenario a bit: upstream asks user to test with 
upstream version X.  Bug isn't reproducible by maintainer.  Does the 
maintainer now have to provide user with binaries?  This gets 
complicated when packaging isn't ready for the version in question, when 
the user has an arch the maintainer doesn't, etc.

-- John