Re: cannot (force)merge bugs

[Michael Albinus]

Karl Berry <karl@freefriends.org> writes:

Hi Karl,

> Even more confusingly, I also sent:
>
>> forcemerge 23639 49901
> bug#23639: Half bug
> bug#49901: Bug in build c-ares
> bug#24807: aclocal: too many loops error with Autoconf archives macros
> Forcibly Merged 23639 24807 49901.
>
> Looking at the web pages:
>
> https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=23639
> - says merged with 24807 (only).
>
> https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=24807
> - says merged with 23639 and 49901. Ok.
>
> https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=49901
>  - no merge stated.
>
> What the heck is going on? Help? --thanks, karl.

I'm using the Emacs debbugs package, which gives us detailed information
about bugs attributes.

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
;; Status
((bug_num . 23639)
 (mergedwith 49901 24807))

;; Status
((bug_num . 24807)
 (mergedwith 49901 23639))

;; Status
((bug_num . 49901)
 (mergedwith 24807 23639))

;; Status
((bug_num . 60419)
 (mergedwith))

;; Status
((bug_num . 62853)
 (mergedwith 62854))

;; Status
((bug_num . 62854)
 (mergedwith 62853))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

So this looks like it should be OK for all bugs but 60419.

Some quotation from the Help on <https://debbugs.gnu.org/server-control.html>

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
merge bugnumber bugnumber ...
    Merges two or more bug reports. When reports are merged opening,
    closing, marking or unmarking as forwarded and reassigning any of
    the bugs to a new package will have an identical effect on all of
    the merged reports.

    Before bugs can be merged they must be in exactly the same state:
    either all open or all closed, with the same forwarded-to upstream
    author address or all not marked as forwarded, all assigned to the
    same package or package(s) (an exact string comparison is done on
    the package to which the bug is assigned), and all of the same
    severity. If they don't start out in the same state you should use
    reassign, reopen and so forth to make sure that they are before
    using merge. Titles are not required to match, and will not be
    affected by the merge.

    If any of the bugs listed in a merge command is already merged with
    another bug then all the reports merged with any of the ones listed
    will all be merged together. Merger is like equality: it is
    reflexive, transitive and symmetric.

    Merging reports causes a note to appear on each report's logs; on
    the WWW pages this includes links to the other bugs.

    Merged reports are all expired simultaneously, and only when all of
    the reports each separately meet the criteria for expiry.

forcemerge bugnumber bugnumber ...
    Forcibly merges two or more bug reports. The first bug is chosen as
    the master bug, and its settings are assigned to the bugs listed
    next in the command. See the text above for a description of what
    merging means.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

That means, merge and forcemerge are possible only on unarchived
bugs. Merge requires all bugs to be in the same state. Forcemerge doesn't
require this, it sets the state of all bugs to the state of the first bug.

I cannot comment on the information provided on the debbugs web pages.

HTH. Best regards, Michael.