When to file "tracking" bugs in RH bugzilla

[Havoc Pennington]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2003 at 10:57:04AM +0200, Göran Uddeborg wrote:
> I'm still slightly uncertain about how to file bugs nowdays.  I
> believe I understand the base rule is to file bug reports upstream
> whenever possible.  There has also been some people mentioning the
> possibility of filing a "tracking" bug in Red Hat bugzilla.  A report
> that would point out the error, and give a reference to the upstream
> bug report.  What I'm not sure about is under what circumstances such
> a tracking bug should be reported.

What I would say is, file a bug on redhat.com if you think the bug is
a candidate for the CambridgeTarget or CambridgeBlocker lists Bill
posted about earlier.

Unfortunately, we don't have global bug triage guidelines, and we
should.  My personal bug triage guidelines resolve all bugs in one of
the following ways:

 - put it on target/blocker list for this release
 - mark with FutureFeature keyword to become a feature for release
   following this one
 - NOTABUG, WONTFIX, etc.
 - UPSTREAM

When I triage a bug, I never leave it open unless it's worth making
target/blocker. We never fix all the target bugs anyhow, so if it
doesn't merit inclusion on that list it's not going to happen ever.  I
just move it UPSTREAM or say WONTFIX.

This has to be different for packages with no upstream such as
redhat-artwork or redhat-config-whatever; for those packages, 
bugs may stay open even though they aren't on the target list.

Some people do it differently, e.g. the installer team uses the
DEFERRED state.

> To give some concrete examples to discuss around: I've recently filed
> three bugs about (localization related) errors in Evolution.
> 
>     http://bugzilla.ximian.com/show_bug.cgi?id=47361
>     http://bugzilla.ximian.com/show_bug.cgi?id=47525
>     http://bugzilla.ximian.com/show_bug.cgi?id=47529

It's a judgment call whether these should be on the target list,
not clear-cut cases.

If in doubt it can't hurt to file on redhat.com just as a way of
asking whether the bug should be on the target list, if you link to
the upstream bug developers can trivially set resolution UPSTREAM if 
they don't think it should be on the list.

You should always file upstream also, even when filing on redhat.com,
to get the conversation started with the upstream developers and
increase the speed/accuracy of fixes. The exception is when the bug is
in packaging or otherwise clearly a Red Hat specific issue.

Havoc