Re: Planned changes for bugzilla.kernel.org to reduce the "Bugzilla blues"

Geert Uytterhoeven
2022-10-02T09:03:23Z

Hi Artem,

On Sat, Oct 1, 2022 at 1:21 PM Artem S. Tashkinov <aros@gmx.com> wrote:
> On 10/1/22 10:57, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
> > On 01.10.22 12:47, Artem S. Tashkinov wrote:
> >> On 10/1/22 10:39, Greg KH wrote:
> >>> On Sat, Oct 01, 2022 at 10:30:22AM +0000, Artem S. Tashkinov wrote:
> >
> >>>> I have a 20+ years experience in IT and some kernel issues are just
> >>>> baffling in terms of trying to understand what to do about them.
> >>>>
> >>>> Here's an example: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=216274
> >>>>
> >>>> What should I do about that? Who's responsible for this? Who should I
> >>>> CC?
> >>>
> >>> Input subsystem.
> >>
> >> It's great you've replied immediately, what about hundreds or even
> >> thousands of other bug reports where people have no clue who has to be
> >> CC'ed?
> >
> > Quoting from https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/reporting-issues.html:
> >
> > "[...] try your best guess which kernel part might be causing the issue.
> > Check the MAINTAINERS file [...] In case tricks like these don’t bring
> > you any further, try to search the internet on how to narrow down the
> > driver or subsystem in question. And if you are unsure which it is: just
> > try your best guess, somebody will help you if you guessed poorly. [...]"
> >
> > HTH, Ciao, Thorsten
>
> Absolute most people:
>
> * Will never read this document
> * Will not be able to "search the internet on how to narrow down the
> driver or subsystem in question"

So how did these people arrive at "bugzilla" in the first place? ;-)

Or is this a case of "if all you have is a hammer...", so you
actively start looking for a bugzilla?
I.e. people who are used to bugzilla/discourse/slack/irc/trac/... will
look for how to use bugzilla/discourse/slack/irc/trac/... to interact
with the developer and/or maintainer.

The definitive guide is the MAINTAINERS file. If there is a (rare)
corresponding "B" entry, you can use that. Else fall back to the
"M" and "L" entries. "C" might be good for an initial query, but not
for the actual reporting, as there's even less traceability than with
mailing lists (the latter are archived by lore).

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
-- Linus Torvalds