bug report handling

[Brian Behlendorf <br...@hyperreal.org>]

Ken - I don't think a bug report should go immediately from "open" to
"feedback" asking simply "is it still happening?".  There should be some
minimal effort put in to see if the bug they are reporting is still
occuring in the latest 1.2.x or 1.3.x; and if it's not there *then* ask the
submitter to check again.  We can't just presume it's likely that the bug
was fixed, unless you know of a specific commit which might have fixed it.
Of course if the bug is still there then it gets promoted to analyzed.  

	Brian

At 07:28 PM 5/28/98 -0000, coar@apache.org wrote:
>[In order for any reply to be added to the PR database, ]
>[you need to include <ap...@Apache.Org> in the Cc line ]
>[and leave the subject line UNCHANGED.  This is not done]
>[automatically because of the potential for mail loops. ]
>
>
>Synopsis: ftp://anonymous@foo.bar doesn't work through a proxy, where
ftp://foo.bar does.
>
>State-Changed-From-To: open-feedback
>State-Changed-By: coar
>State-Changed-When: Thu May 28 12:28:19 PDT 1998
>State-Changed-Why:
>[This is a standard response.]
>This Apache problem report has not been updated recently.
>Please reply to this message if you have any additional
>information about this issue, or if you have answers to
>any questions that have been posed to you.  If there are
>no outstanding questions, please consider this a request
>to try to reproduce the problem with the latest software
>release, if one has been made since last contact.  If we
>don't hear from you, this report will be closed.
>
>
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pure chewing satisfaction                                  brian@apache.org
                                                        brian@hyperreal.org

Re: bug report handling

[Rodent of Unusual Size <Ke...@Golux.Com>]

Brian Behlendorf wrote:
> 
> At 06:52 PM 5/28/98 -0400, Rodent of Unusual Size wrote:
> >Which do you prefer, a silence which shows no signs of ending,
> >or a no-op which at least lets the user know we haven't forgotten
> >the issue even if we haven't looked at it?
> 
> I understand your reasoning; I guess my customer-service background
> was cringing at the implied "we don't care about your bug report"
> in the message, but then again they aren't paying us :) so asking
> them to do a little more work to let us know if the bug is still
> current might not be bad I guess.  Maybe the default text could be
> modified a bit, but I don't have any suggestions right now.

D'accord, 100%.  BTW, this rather Draconian treatment has actually
resulted in closer to half-a-dozen PRs off the open list.

I *did* reword the message to-day to add the bit about 'if there's
a newer version please try it and let us know.'  Before it didn't
even say that.  I'll update the message with anything anyone thinks is
better (within reason, of course ;-).

#ken	P-)}

Ken Coar                    <http://Web.Golux.Com/coar/>
Apache Group member         <http://www.apache.org/>
"Apache Server for Dummies" <http://Web.Golux.Com/coar/ASFD/>

Re: bug report handling

[Brian Behlendorf <br...@hyperreal.org>]

At 06:52 PM 5/28/98 -0400, Rodent of Unusual Size wrote:
>Which do you prefer, a silence which shows no signs of ending,
>or a no-op which at least lets the user know we haven't forgotten
>the issue even if we haven't looked at it?

I understand your reasoning; I guess my customer-service background was
cringing at the implied "we don't care about your bug report" in the
message, but then again they aren't paying us :) so asking them to do a
little more work to let us know if the bug is still current might not be
bad I guess.  Maybe the default text could be modified a bit, but I don't
have any suggestions right now.

	Brian


--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--
pure chewing satisfaction                                  brian@apache.org
                                                        brian@hyperreal.org

Re: bug report handling

[Rodent of Unusual Size <Ke...@Golux.Com>]

Brian Behlendorf wrote:
> 
> Ken - I don't think a bug report should go immediately from "open"
> to "feedback" asking simply "is it still happening?".  There should
> be some minimal effort put in to see if the bug they are reporting
> is still occuring in the latest 1.2.x or 1.3.x; and if it's not
> there *then* ask the submitter to check again.  We can't just
> presume it's likely that the bug was fixed, unless you know of
> a specific commit which might have fixed it.  Of course if the
> bug is still there then it gets promoted to analyzed.

I didn't presume anything was fixed; I asked the submitters to verify
that it was still a problem and/or still concerned them.  We have
had PRs close after actions like this because the submitters
figured out it was their problem, fixed it, and didn't tell us.

I was only doing this to problems that haven't been touched in
months.  If we haven't touched it in more than two months, I think
it's reasonable to assume that we won't in the near future either.
So I think it's at least semi-reasonable to ask the submitter
(who's more familiar with the problem and more likely to be able
to say yea or nay quickly) to check it out.

Which do you prefer, a silence which shows no signs of ending,
or a no-op which at least lets the user know we haven't forgotten
the issue even if we haven't looked at it?

FWIW, this resulted in at least one closed problem to-day, which
made it worth my time - since that PR would have stayed open for
a few more months otherwise.

#ken	P-)}

Ken Coar                    <http://Web.Golux.Com/coar/>
Apache Group member         <http://www.apache.org/>
"Apache Server for Dummies" <http://Web.Golux.Com/coar/ASFD/>