Re: Tracking package submissions with Debbugs

[Alex Vong]

Efraim Flashner <address@hidden> writes:

> On Fri, Sep 02, 2016 at 02:39:12PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
>> Hi Alex!
>> 
>> Alex Vong <address@hidden> skribis:
>> 
>> > While it may not be as user-friendly as web-based bug tracker these
>> > days, I think the Debian bug tracking system is still better than our
>> > current approach. In Debian, everything is a package. It is like a
>> > language primitive in the bug tracker system.
>> >
>> >
>> > There is an "intended to package" (ITP) package. When you want to
>> > package something, you simply file a bug against the ITP package. This
>> > has the advantage that, the relevant information stays within the bug
>> > report. So everyone can see the whole process, starting from someone
>> > intending to package, to a fully reviewed package, all in a single bug
>> > report. It is like having "lexical scoping".
>> 
>> And we all like lexical scoping.  :-)
>
> I think it would make sense to have the one bug report for the "target
> package" and then all the packages that get pulled in along the way get
> tacked on also.
>
Hmm, but what if we have 2 target packages (A, B) pulling the same
package (C) in? Then it is not obvious if C should live in A's or B's
bug report. What do you think?

>> 
>> > And the most important argument comes: We already have it now[0]! So,
>> > this could be a working intermediate solution. Currently, we are not
>> > using debbugs to its full potential.
>> >
>> >
>> > My suggestion will be to create a new package called "guix-package", and
>> > all people hoping to introduce a new package to guix should file a bug
>> > report to <address@hidden>. If you are new to this type of bug
>> > tracking system, no problem! There is (some) documentation on it[1][2]
>> > and here is my own little example[3].
>> 
>> I think this is a good idea, at least an improvement over the status
>> quo.
>> 
>> I suppose it wouldn’t handle patch series very well though, would it?
>> Or people would have to send the “cover letter” of the series first, and
>> then send the rest to address@hidden once a number has been
>> assigned?
>> 
>
> This seems like the best idea, otherwise we'd have to reassign and merge
> all the patches.
>
>> What’s unclear to me is how convenient Debbugs is for non-Emacs users:
>> Emacs has M-x debbugs-gnu, which is a significant UI improvement, but
>> how do non-Emacs users deal with Debbugs?
>> 
>
> This is one of my concerns. There's reportbug (and reportbug-ng) in
> Debian https://reportbug-ng.alioth.debian.org/index.html that we might
> be able to use after forking/patching our info in for Debian's.
>
Perhaps we can have guix reportbug!

>> Thanks,
>> Ludo’.
>>