proving a bug is gone

[Adam Di Carlo <apharris@burrito.onshore.com>]

Raul has suggested to add test cases to debian/rules to certify that a
bug is gone.  As much as I think our documentation should encourage
maintainers to write test cases, I believe this puts undue stress on
package maintainers.  Moreover, if we do not have the cooperation of
the upstream maintainers, writing test cases is going to be very
difficult (they are generally very sensitive to minor changes in the
code).

The debian-testing group is actually working on this issue as well,
someone should liase with them.

But again, my personal opinion is that it would be a *mistake* to
require certification that a bug is closed before uploading a
fix. Take my case; I maintain MH; it is totally un-maintained upstream
and obsoletely by nmh.  My maintenance principle is to take the path
of least resistance when fixing bugs; sometimes, even, I just forward
them to the (dormant) upstream maintainers and just suggest to the bug
submitter that active development should be directed towards nmh, not
MH.  Now, why should policy suddenly tell me I'm wrong to do this?

One law for the Lion and the Lamb is tyranny
 -- paraphrase from William Blake

-- 
.....A. P. Harris...apharris@onShore.com...<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>