[asterisk-dev] [policy] Bug Tracker Workflow Discussion

[Tilghman Lesher]

On Monday 11 August 2008 09:07:26 Leif Madsen wrote:
> 3) The next step is to determine whether the report is about a bug or a
> submission of a new feature:
>
>       a) BUG: A bug should be moved into the status 'acknowledged'. The
> bug may also be assigned to a developer for the creation of the initial
> patch, or review of the issue. Once a patch has been created for the
> issue and attached, the issue can then be moved to the 'confirmed'
> status. At this point initial code review and discussion about the patch
> will take place. Once an adequate amount of support for the
> implementation of the patch is acquired, then the bug can be moved to
> the 'ready for testing' status for wider testing by the community. After
> the testing phase is complete and it appears the issue is resolved, the
> patch can be committed by a developer and closed.
>
>       b) FEATURE: As new features should be filed with a patch, it can
> be immediately moved to the 'confirmed' status, making it ready for
> basic formatting and code review. From there any changes to style or
> feel of the patch based on feedback from the community can be discussed,
> and changes to the patch made. It can then be moved forward to the
> 'ready for testing' status. Once the feature has been merged, or a
> decision has been made that it will not be merged, the issue should be
> taken to 'closed' with the appropriate resolution.[Note2]

I'd like to note that the statuses as noted here are in fact the reverse of
the previous policy, and I'd like to suggest that we continue the previous
policy, that features are acknowledged and bugs are confirmed.
Additionally, I'd prefer that before bugs are confirmed, we either have a
repeatable bug (perhaps steps to reproduce) or else we have enough
information in the issue (backtraces, valgrind output, requested debug,
etc.) to figure out what the problem is.  A good number of issues we ask,
beg, and plead for more information, to which we get stony silence, after
which we close the bug.  Sometimes closing the issue gets the reporter
to respond; sometimes, though, we're left with a single report and no way to
track down the issue.

In other words, the "confirmed" status should mean that enough triage has been
performed for a developer to take control of the issue.

-- 
Tilghman