[QA] To clone or not to clone ( a bug report ) that's the question...

[Mark McLoughlin]

Hi Jóhann,

On Thu, 2009-01-22 at 12:23 +0000, "Jóhann B. Guðmundsson" wrote:
> Mamoru Tasaka wrote:
> > Jóhann B. Guðmundsson wrote, at 01/22/2009 06:46 AM +9:00:
> >> When a Bug Hunter encounters the same bug in past (supported ) 
> >> release, current release and rawhide.
> >>
> >> Should he..
> >>
> >> A.
> >>     File the same bug 3 times as in once for each release?
> >>
> >> Or
> >>
> >> B.
> >>     File the bug once and comment on that report that the same bug
> >>     is present in the other release(s) as well?

I think a sensible policy is:

  1) File the bug against the version you have tested with

  2) If this version is not rawhide, there is generally no need to also
     file a bug against rawhide. Maintainers should always check 
     whether the bug is fixed in rawhide. Commenting whether you 
     believe the bug exists in rawhide is always useful.

  3) If you think this is a critical bug and have checked that it 
     exists other released versions, then you should clone the bug for 
     those other versions.

  4) Otherwise, just comment on the impact to other versions and let 
     the maintainer decide whether cloning the bug is appropriate.

No, it's not a black/white policy. It requires a little bit of common
sense. But that's okay, right?

> This subject WILL be a topic on the next QA meeting and votes counted 
> and a FINAL decision be made.
> 
> The decision that is made on that meeting WILL end up in testers guide 
> and be mentioned on the QA TESTERS page.
> 
> YOU as a maintainer or developer of a component have a week to choose 
> either A or B and express your opinion on that chose.

Voting sucks, rough consensus is preferable.

> There will be an option where YOU can add your component as an exception 
> to that final outcome on that TESTERS page.

(B) is pretty much the status quo; if this voting thing means that (A)
is chosen and the triage team starts cloning a bunch of bugs, you can be
sure you'll have maintainers who haven't read or replied to this thread
waking up and getting annoyed that they've 3x bug reports to deal
with :-)

Cheers,
Mark.