Bug#509732: Kalle's message #68
On Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:11:03 -0800
Don Armstrong <don@debian.org> wrote:
> On Fri, 26 Dec 2008, José Luis González wrote:
> > If you still don't understand, imagine that a text is mistakenly
> > introduced in the Policy and it causes a RC bug. How should this bug
> > about the Policy be reported? According to the Policy Manual:
>
> It should be filed against debian-policy with the appropriate
> severity.
What is the appropriate severity? The current description in
bug-maint-info.txt and the lack of a directive in the Policy Manual
that would allow filing it as serious would make it important,
but the bug is causing a RC bug.
> > If the error is reported to the list it can remain and the package
> > with the erroneous policy be released if it is included in the
> > package and the Policy isn't amended before.
>
> That assumes that the people reading the list won't file the
> appropriate bug on the appropriate package. I never known that not to
> be the case.
Can another developer file a serious bug on the debian-policy
package if the mantainer doesn't? According to bug-maint-info.txt a
severe bug can be filed when it violates the Policy or the *mantainer*
considers the *package* unsuitable for release.
If another developer can, please, update the description.
> > If the error is reported to the Bug Tracking System we are in a
> > similar case as with the mailing list. Only if a mantainer raises
> > severity of the debian-policy *package* to serious would the bug be
> > considered as RC.
>
> If the bug is actually RC, someone has to recognize it as such and
> raise the severity. This isn't a serious problem for packages such as
> -policy which are watched by loads of people,
Again, the same problem. If the mantainer is the only person who can
consider the package unsuitable for release then only him can raise the
severity to RC.
> and if a package isn't
> watched by people who know, then the bug probably isn't going to
> seriously affect the release anyway.
This goes against the social contract:
4. Our priorities are our users and free software
We will be guided by the needs of our users and the free software
community. We will place their interests first in our priorities.
If it is watched by a user he can't file a RC bug.
The present report is only about Debian Policy bugs, but it could happen
with any other Debian document that affects the release, i.e. the
social contract or the constitution. I know those are foundational
documents and can only be changed by developers, but if the bug is
found by a user he couldn't file a RC bug. If nobody who knows watches
doc-base it could affect the release.
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