Re: kernel bugzilla

Martin J. Bligh
2005-06-18T15:58:07Z

>> > > One thing I haven't worked out is how to get a bug which is initially
>> > > reported via email *into* the bugzilla system for tracking purposes. One
>> > > could just ask the originator to raise a bugzilla entry, as lots of other
>> > > projects do. But I don't think we want to do that - it's in our interest
>> > > to make bug reporting as easy as possible for the reporter, rather than
>> > > putting up barriers.
>> >
>> > Depends... Sometimes it's quite ok to put the onus on the reported to
>> > file it in bugzilla, since it should be considered in his best interest
>> > to do so - he obviously filed the bug, because the issue bothers him in
>> > some way. As long as it is 'easy enough' to do so, I think we are
>> > alright. The question is if this can't be automated fairly easily. A
>> > good bugzilla interface helps a _lot_.
>>
>> Agree. We should encourage people to use bugzilla as the initial
>> entry-point. But if someone instead uses email as the first contact I'm
>> just a little bit reluctant to say "thanks, now go and try again".
>>
>> Perhaps we could find some nice volunteer (hint) who could take the task of
>> transferring such reports into bugzilla. There wouldn't be very many, really.
>> ...
>
> Why does this has to be done manually?
>
> Reporting a bug in a Bugzilla only requires creating an account (if you
> don't have one) and entering the bug. It's not a "do it again", since
> the user already has the whole contents of the bug report. If you've
> written an email with a good bug report pasting it into a Bugzilla
> shouldn't be a problem.

The manual steps I see are filling in the fields other than problem
description - version, category, and subcategory, in particular ...

> The big problem for users of many bug tracking systems (including the
> kernel Bugzilla) is not that bug reporting was too hard. The problem is
> that bugs aren't handled in time.

Agreed.

M.