Directing Debian users to use project BTSes - should we?
I just saw something like this in a control file:
XXX has its own BTS at http://XXX/. If you find an upstream problem
(not packaging problem!!), please use it instead of Debian BTS.
I've been seeing a few of these in packages lately (sometimes in
README.Debian). However, it seems like maintainers should be the
front line of support for Debian users, regardless of whether it's an
"upstream" or packaging problem. I guess if it's entirely obvious
it's an upstream problem, and the end user knows how to properly
report the problem, it may not be an issue (indeed, I directly
reported a wishlist item in Konqueror today to the KDE folks, though I
probably wouldn't have if I had to go to a lot more hassle than typing
'reportbug -b kde konqueror'). But unless the current Debian package
is in sync with upstream (which it usually won't be in stable) I can
see a lot of already-fixed-in-their-version bugs getting dumped on
upstream developers.
Anyway, I was wondering if this is something we want to discourage in
policy, or if I'm just not thinking the same way as most maintainers
(i.e. my premises are flawed).
Chris
--
Chris Lawrence <cnlawren@olemiss.edu> - http://www.lordsutch.com/chris/
Computer Systems Manager (Physics & Astronomy, 125 Lewis, 662-915-5765)
Instructor, POL 101 (Political Science, 208 Deupree, 662-915-5949)
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