Re: What to do with bug reports against non-existing/removed packages
"Daniel Leidert" <Daniel.Leidert.Spam@gmx.net> writes:
> Hi,
>
> Our bug tracker contains items for packages, which do (not longer)
> exist. What should happen to them? I see, that it might be a good idea
> to keep them for the case, a package is re-introduced. But this might
> happen only for a few packages. Most of them got removed because newer
> versions were released. What about closing those reports, if an
> RM-request is filed?
This is a hard task, as there's no simple set of rules that would apply
to all bugs. Some were filed against packages that existed at a time,
but got removed without the bug being closed (this often happens when
the source remains, it just stops building a particular binary
package). In this case, the bug should be examined, and either
reassigned if it still applies, or closed (preferably with a version) if
it does not.
Then there are the case of misfiled bugs: bugs filed against packages
that never existed, but were installed from a third party repository
(these should be closed with an appropriate message, urging the
submitter to either contact the third party repo's maintainer, or
upstream, whichever is more applicable); typos in package names, where a
reapply would be best; bugs against packages not yet in the archive (but
either in NEW, or in the archive, but so fresh its not known to the BTS
yet): these should be left alone most of the time, but in certain cases,
it might be a good idea to contact the maintainer, so he'll know about
these reports, as the BTS will not notify him when the package enters
the archive. If he doesn't check the BTS page, but relies on email, he
won't know about the reports.
There are probably a few other corner cases, but as you can see, it's
not simple. That's why the list is so long still. On and off, a few
people (myself included) try to shorten a bit, and so far, it seems we
can handle the newly misfiled bugs.
Any help with getting the backlog down to a much smaller number would be
greatly appreciated. Updating the wiki[1] with guidelines and HOWTOs on
how to handle specific cases would also be desirable, and I'm happy to
help with either.
[1]: http://wiki.debian.org/Teams/unknown-package/TODO
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