Re: bugs and bug tracking

* Nathan Wagner (nw+pg(at)hydaspes(dot)if(dot)org) wrote:
> I think I have suggested that there be a way to generate a bug id via
> email. Presumably someone could just copy that email address to make a
> not-tracked discussion get a bug id. If the system archived all the
> lists (not hard) it would be possible to pull the other emails from the
> thread into the bug (also not hard). As for marking as 'not-a-bug'
> this can easily be done via whatever mechanism might be used.
> Something along the lines of:
>
> Bug Status: not a bug

If we're providing control messages through email (which I absolutely
believe needs to be supported), I'd strongly prefer that they be easy to
write. The above isn't.

A good set of commands to support can be seen here:

https://www.debian.org/Bugs/server-control

The way debbugs currently works, which I like, is that you email
NNNN-done(at)bugs(dot)debian(dot)org (NNNN being the bug #) and that automatically
closes the bug and that email is sent to the bug reporter. Generally,
this will be in a reply to an email which came from, or at least CC'd,
NNNN(at)bugs(dot)debian(dot)org, so changing the address to go to -done is quite
easy.

An example would go something like:

Initial email:

-----------
From: 1234(at)bugs(dot)postgresql(dot)org
[...]
PG should do X
-----------

Reply email:

-----------
From: sfrost(at)snowman(dot)net
To: 1234-done(at)bugs(dot)postgresql(dot)org, control(at)bugs(dot)postgresql(dot)org

tag 1234 wontfix
thanks

Blah, blah, this is why we don't consider this a bug
-----------

Currently with debbugs (afaik, I can double-check with Don though), to
actually add tags you have to email control@, which will read and
process commands up until it finds a "thanks" or similar end-command.
Since the email is going to control@, you have to specify which bug
you're adding the tag to.

Here's an example of how the system is used:

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=100132

Using control@, etc, avoids having to figure out if a given email sent
to NNN(at)bugs(dot)postgresq(dot)org has commands in it or not (all emails to
control@ are assumed to have commands).

Thanks!

Stephen