[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: SQL::Statement unusable in major Linux distributions



Hi Paul:

>From the perspective of Debian in particular, I have the following
statement to make.

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 5:49 PM, Paul Beardsell <paul@beardsell.com> wrote:

[snip]
>
> * It is beneficial to the Perl community (developers and users) that bugs
> are held centrally. I am sure this is also the position of the Perl
> community. The discoverer of a bug cannot be responsible for contacting each
> distro.  Distro maintainers cannot independently triage *all* bugs in all
> the packages they include.  They need (we need!) "upstream", a central
> repository.  rt.cpan.org has the facility to record bugs against older but
> still current versions.  It should be used as I think Jesse Vincent also
> intended, for the benefit of the wider community, as this central
> repository.
>
[snip]

In Debian, we like to have everything that affects our packages filed
in our bug tracker (the Debian Bug Tracking System). From time to time
in the past, we have missed these bugs (ie, not forwarded them
upstream), and this has been problematic for people. However, our bug
tracker is entirely open and anyone is free to look at our packages
and forward relevant issues upstream.

One particular point I'd like to make is that sometimes bugs only
exist downstream due to some modifications we've made in order to
package things or for some other reason. As a result, it doesn't seem
fair to bother the upstream maintainers about issues which are
Debian-specific, or Fedora-specific, for example.

Therefore, we ask that our users always file bugs against the Debian
packages; we will coordinate with upstream appropriately to get things
fixed, taking care to forward the bug and make whatever arrangements
necessary to fix the package.

In general, the CPAN Request Tracker has been where we forward most of
our bug reports. Some maintainers do not like to use the RT system,
and we have to respect their wishes. In that case, we file bugs by
whatever means the maintainers tell us to in the POD of their
packages, or otherwise in the RT or via direct mail.

In defense of the SQL::Statement maintainers and all, I think if there
are critical issues with older releases, they should be brought to the
attention of each distro. Debian has policies for when things get
synchronized between unstable <-> testing, and things that can be
updated in stable. Things like security fixes and critical fixes are
candidates for patches in stable, however this is the responsibility
of Debian/Fedora/etc and not of the CPAN Maintainers.

I urge you to let the CPAN maintainers do what they do best -- produce
good software. Others (including those that package these modules) are
responsible for distro-specific issues, and I encourage you to file
bugs in those packages.

Cheers,

Jonathan


Reply to: