Hello Chris. I think this statement is not true. It's not clear at first so I'll explain.Backports is a repository of packages that are outside of the normal Debian repositories and have their own policy of how they operate. Backports are not covered by the Debian Security Team and packages in the repository will be removed if they violate the policy for Backports.
- The Backports FAQ [1] first item states: Q: Where shall I report bugs I found in packages from backports to?A: Please report them to the debian-backports mailing list. The Debian bugtracking system doesn't know anything about backports versions, and sometimes the backporter isn't in the Debian packaging team so they might miss the report.
- The last item in the Backports Instructions [2] states: Report BugsPlease report bugs in backported packages to the backports mailing list and NOT to the Debian BTS!
- Bug reports going to the Backports mailing list is part of the Backports policy. [Or at least that's the case last I knew, it doesn't seem to be clearly indicated in the FAQ or instructions.] The reason for this policy is that the Debian BTS doesn't know about Backports packages, so the BTS get into "version confusion" because it doesn't have visibility into the repository, leading to a lot of confusion.
- Violating the policy of where bug reports go is common because users of Backports typically start with ReportBug or opening a bug report in the BTS not knowing the package being used came from Backports. For new developers of packages in Backports, bugs going to the BTS is tolerated for a time, but eventually the developer is told to stop this or the package will have to be removed. [Or at least that's what used to happen when I last uploaded to Backports.]
So to get around that issue packages end up needing to be modified to change where bug reports go by default so that users can use ReportBug to file bugs. What I recall doing is adding something like "Bugs: mailto://debian-backports@lists.debian.org"; to the debian/control file to get this to happen without having to change the Maintainer field.
The manpage for deb-control [3] shows this Bugs: field, but the current version of Debian Policy [4] does not seem to make mention of it. I will need to figure out if this field is still active and still used by ReportBug.
-- Chris [1] https://backports.debian.org/FAQ/ [2] https://backports.debian.org/Instructions/ [3] https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/deb-control.5.html [4] https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html Chris Knadle Chris.Knadle@coredump.us On 6/1/25 08:02, Chris Hofstaedtler wrote:
Only replying to this part, obviously: On Sat, May 31, 2025 at 06:31:31PM -0400, Chris Knadle wrote:Dealing with Debian Backports isn't fun, BTW, because bugs to Backports aren't supposed to go to the Debian BTS last I knew. So the package will have to be modified so that the bug reports go to Backports, and then I'll need to change my Sieve mail filters in some way to grab the MLMMJ bugs going to Backports to move them into my Debian-Bugs folder so that I'll see them. Regardless of not wanting to deal with that complication, I will do that, because it's what I think is the right thing to do here.If you are both the uploader of the backport and the package maintainer in testing/unstable, you can run the BTS for such a package in any way you like. Chris