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

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 03:27:19PM +0000, Mark McLoughlin wrote:
> 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?

I agree - common sense is the most important thing - there are plenty
of scenarios where cloning makes sense - and also plenty of scenarios
where it is just creating alot of extra work for no gain. So mandating
either of those two options is sub-optimal. Flexible guidelines are 
preferable to hard rules.

Daniel
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