Re: Bug#908155: Coordination with upstream developers not universally applied

[Thorsten Glaser <t.glaser@tarent.de>]

Hi Wouter,

> I agree that it's perfectly fine for a maintainer to say "this is an
> upstream bug, please report it upstream", which the current text
> doesn't allow for.

In theory, I could agree to that, were it not for a number of
points I outlined earlier:

• the variety of upstream bug trackers and having to register
  an account with each of them

• the problems dealing with upstream reactions (questions,
  patches, etc.) especially for less technical users (or
  merely these not knowledgeable about that particular
  package’s internals)

• the lack of familiarity between upstream and distro end user

Now that I write it again, there’s another point:

• the package maintainers not being involved in the discussion
  (dangerous if e.g. upstream suggests a fix that won’t work
  in the distro for some reason, and the end user not knowing
  about that, and them agreeing to that fix)

I’m still convinced that package maintainers should at least
forward patches from end users and keep an eye on them, and
that, if/when it’s okay to ask the end user to report upstream
themselves, they help whenever needed and perhaps also keep an
eye on the upstream bugs.

bye,
//mirabilos
-- 
[16:04:33] bkix: "veni vidi violini"
[16:04:45] bkix: "ich kam, sah und vergeigte"...