Re: Reportbug and BTS
On Tue, Apr 29, 2003 at 01:41:00PM -0500, John Lightsey wrote:
> Following the advice given on Debian Mentors I've started going through the
> various bug lists looking for reproducable, isolated and fixable bugs to help
> out with.
[...]
Thanks.
> (1) Reportbug doesn't seem to have the ability to add tags during a
> follow-up. Is there a feature I'm overlooking that allows this or is it
> normal to send a follow-up through reportbug and a seperate hand written
> message to control@bugs.debian.org?
I myself use my normal e-mail client to send followups to BTS, if I
change tags I either send separate message or send the message
both "To: 1233@bugs.debian.org,control@bugs.debian.org" and start the
message with commands for the control-interface and end them with
"thank" and attach the explanation afterwards:
---------------------------
tags 123 fixed
thank
Hello,
I have verified that this bug has been fixed two releases ago and am
tagging it as fixed
---------------------------
> Bugs #20715 and 49431
>
> (2) When a bug is filed against the wrong package should I in submitting a
> follow-up reassign the bug or should I simply point out that the problem lies
> in another package and leave it to the package maintainer to reassign the
> bug?
I have not taken a look at these two special bug-reports but normally
I'd send a note to the BTS and wouldn't reassign it unless the
maintainer gives his ok. - The maintainer might have special reasons
to keep the bug.
Branden Robinson has collected some tips on the X-Strike-Force's
homepage about what you should(not) do with X's bug-report - it might
be a good general guideline.
> Bugs #187686 and 137135
> (3) If a package maintainer has closed a bug due to a fix in the Unstable
> version is it encouraged to fix, reopen and retag the bug (patch/stable) if
> the problem persists in Woody? I can imagine that reopening bugs would piss
> off quite a few maintainers, but on the flip side I use Stable on my servers
> and primary workstation. A patch only applied to the Unstable version
> doesn't really fix the problem for me.
Keep it closed. http://www.debian.org/Bugs/Developer states "Problem
[...] can only be considered fixed once a package that includes the
bug fix enters the Debian archive." it does not talk about "enters the
Debian/stable distribution".
The Debian BTS doesn't support version tracking (there are efforts,
but it is complicated), the only way it currently could be done is
manually by the maintainer, he would have to stop closing bugs in
changelogs, and start big retagging actions once a package enters
testing and close the bugs manually once a new release has been made.
[...]
> (4) Related to the last question, what sort of bugs qualify for fixes in
> Stable - Proposed Updates?
[...]
developer'sreference 5.5.1 Uploads to stable
> (5) Although I like the idea of fixing bugs as a way of getting to know the
> Debian community and ultimately start on the NM process, I'm wondering if
> this is a practical way of going about it.
Imho QA is perfect:
- it is important work. Fixing bugs in existing packages is much more
useful for debian than being the maintainer of another small variant
of tetris or an editor nobody uses.
- you'll see and have to work with different packaging pratices, not just
dh_make+some editing
- you might make direct contact with different maintainers.
> Finding fixable bugs (fixable in Debian and not by joining the
> upstream development team) seems to be very hit-or-miss. Many of
> the packages with reams of bugs seem to be unfixable without forking
> from the upstream version (or simply waiting on upstream to get
> around to it.)
Temporarily forking from upstream is no bad thing. - The patch will be
tested by debian and will (hopefully) be forwarded to upstream.
> As you can see from the bugs I've listed, no one
> developer would notice that I'm trying to make a contribution by
> fixing bugs since each developer only sees a single isolated patch.
> In fact, on bugs.debian.org my email address doesn't even show up
> since I'm not the submitter of the bugs I'm patching.
Just keep a copy of the e-mails you sent and remember the bugnumbers.
> Finally, you obviously don't need to be a DD to fix bugs...only to
> maintain packages it seems (and yes I do plan on adopting packages I
> use and have enough skill to maintain as they get orphaned.)
You don't need to a be DD to maintain a package either, you just need
a sponsor.
> What would you suggest to overcome this? I'm thinking I should start a
> blog listing the various bugs I've worked on. Does Debian have a page that
> already does something like this? (A searchable index of changelogs for
> instance?)
Isn't debian-devel-changes@lists.debian.org archived at
groups.google.com?
cu andreas
PS: Be aware that I don't speak ex cathedra for the Debian project,
these are just my personal views and opinions.
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