bug #149713

Michael Schwendt bugs.michael at gmx.net
Mon Feb 28 16:11:30 UTC 2005


On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 17:40:10 +0200 (EET), Panu Matilainen wrote:

> > After verifying the compiler's warnings, such reports should be forwarded
> > to upstream developers and are worth fixing, if the code is executed.
> 
> I don't think we can expect an extras packager to fix upstream bugs in the 
> code, packagers deal with *packaging* bugs. If the packager *can* fix bugs 
> (and certainly many can, to some extent at least) then fine,

My definition of "packager" and "package maintainer" is different, and
I've seen other community people see it like me.  Enough insight into the
code (or programming language) provided, a _package maintainer_ fixes bugs
to improve the overall package. This ranges from fixes for C/C++ Standard
issues (e.g. compiler rejecting older code) to fixes for bugs causing
segmentation faults or other run-time defects.

I'd rather increase the array size by one element than compile code which
writes beyond the array boundary.

> but me thinks 
> things like this can safely be closed with "please report upstream 
> instead" unless the bug is caused by FE-specific changes to the software.

The reporter expects to reach package maintainers, who keep contact with
the various upstream project developers. Otherwise he would not spend the
time on doing these test builds. He would not look up the contact
addresses or bug tracking databases for dozens (at the worst case
several hundreds) of projects.

If you expect him to report the bugs upstream and he doesn't do it, it may
be that the same old bugs bite you in the future and cause run-time
misbehaviour.

This is his way of trying to help.  Yes, I realise that it fans out the
bug traffic. A single reporter in a single bug database -> many package
maintainers forwarding the bugs to multiple upstream projects.

-- 
Fedora Core release Rawhide (Rawhide) - Linux 2.6.10-1.1155_FC4
loadavg: 0.15 0.06 0.08




More information about the fedora-extras-list mailing list