T&S for Release Assistents

[Andreas Barth <aba@not.so.argh.org>]

[Cced the victi^Wpotential assistents this time - next time get it from the list :]

Hi guys,

Your first assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to solve the
following bugs:

Marc 'HE' Brockschmidt
354093 [           ] libnss-ldap: getent segfault when reading large uid-/gidNumbers
356394 [           ] mc-foo: exception on startup
353134 [           ] libtest-builder-tester-perl: FTBFS with perl 5.8.8

Andrea Mennucci
354650 [  H        ] lightspeed: segfault at start up on amd64
340538 [           ] apache2: includes non-free and possibly undistributable files
346115 [           ] lineak-xosdplugin: doesn't print onscreen messages anymore

Guido Trotter
346354 [           ] distribution of this package is likely a GPL violation
351981 [           ] muine: Fails to start
352926 [           ] System crash while prelinking causes data loss

Adeodato Simó
266407 [           ] [NONFREE-DOC:GFDL] reference manual is licensed under GFDL
321102 [           ] kmail looses mails
339749 [           ] maildrop: kills processes it shouldn't

Jeroen van Wolffelaar
345823 [           ] apt: Key error at year turnover resembles security problem, and may represent one
346164 [           ] FTBFS on arm, hppa, sparc
276962 [           ] harbour: FTBFS on amd64: harbour hangs on run.

Luk Claes
335473 [           ] cricket: Completely broken with latest rrdtool package 1.2.11-0.4
309932 [           ] boot-admin should not be in unstable
311188 [           ] debian-edu-config: Messes "programmatically" with conffiles of other packages

Bill Allombert
320375 [           ] conquest-gl: fail to start (Assertion `window->Window.VisualInfo != ((void *)0)' failed.)
350407 [           ] lessdisks-terminal: modifies /etc/kernel-img.conf in postinst
331661 [           ] extensions/*.jar ship without source code, shipped jar files are installed

"Solve" can mean many things. The best solution is a fixed package being
uploaded to the archive that satisfies the submitter, the maintainer,
and everyone else. Alternatively, it might be that it's a non-bug or
has already been fixed, and you can satisfy everyone that that's the
case. Another option is that the bug might be unfixable, and the package
may need to be removed from testing or unstable or both. In some cases
the bug may be specific to woody or sarge. In some cases the submitter
might not be contactable to verify the problem's solved.

By this time in two weeks, you should aim for each of the bugs under your
name to have moved forward as far as possible, ideally closed. If it's
not clear what the problem is, find out. If it's not clear what would fix
it, work it out. If the fix isn't entirely clear, spell it out. If it's
fixed upstream, point that out. Prepare a patch if there isn't already
one. Do an NMU if appropriate. You get the idea.

You might want to consider spending a few minutes looking at each bug now,
and, if necessary, ask for any more information that's needed from the
submitter, so that you have the information when you've got some more
time to spend on it later.

Once you've done as much as you're able for the two weeks, make sure the
bug report includes all the up to date information, then reply to this mail
(to debian-release@lists.debian.org) with a brief summary of what's
happened and what the next step (if any) is. If you think the package
requires removal from testing (or the bug can be fixed by other means
from the release team), feel free to forward the proposed fix as soon as
possible to the release team.

If the above is just too easy, for extra credit you can take on some of
the other older bugs from the RC bug list. If you do, include those in
your mail next week.  If you're not able to fix a bug, ask for help or do
as much as you can, then leave it; don't get in over your head, or, worse,
upload an NMU that's broken or doesn't completely fix the problem.

Of course, you are allowed to use all resources available for bug fixing;
this excludes the help of the current release team members for obvious
reasons. :)

So, have fun, 
Your Release Managers