Re: [RFC][PATCH] Update REPORTING-BUGS

["Rafael J. Wysocki" <rjw@sisk.pl>]

On Sunday, 25 of November 2007, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 25, 2007 at 09:57:09PM +0100, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
> >...
> > +Reporting Linux kernel bugs
> >...
> > +Usually, this requires you to do some more work than just sending an email
> > +message with a bug report, but it often is necessary to collect all information
> > +related to the reported bug in one place, so that it is easily accessible at
> > +any time later.
> 
> I wouldn't say creating an account (if you don't already have one)
> plus 5 additional mouse clicks per bug report are substancially more 
> work.

Plus generating some information that it asks you for and that may or may not
be relevant to your report.

> > +Email messages containing bug reports should generally be sent to the
> > +Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org> and to the
> > +mailing list dedicated to the affected subsystem.
> 
> How should a newbie find the correct mailing list?

Read MAINTAINERS?  Ok, I should have said about that.

> Benchmark:
> Easier than the "some more work" when using Bugzilla.

Nope.  Please try to file a report against libata/PATA using the Bugzilla.
Good luck. ;-)

> >...
> > +It also is a good idea to notify the maintainer of the affected subsystem and
> > +the maintainer of the tree in which the bug is present by adding their email
> > +addresses to the Cc list of the bug report message.  The email addresses of
> > +maintainers of the majority of kernel subsystems can be found in the MAINTAINERS
> > +file, but you should not worry too much about getting a wrong person.
> 
> If you don't already know MAINTAINERS well then finding the right 
> component in Bugzilla is much easier.

I disagree.  How a newbie is supposed to know what AIO and DIO mean and WTH is
the difference between LVM2/DM and MD? 

I took only the IO/Storage submenu as an example, but there are other things
like that.  For instance, what is the difference between "Flash/Memory
Technology Devices" and MMC/SD?  Why "Hotplug" is under "Drivers" and WTH
does it *mean*?  What "W1" means for that matter??  Etc.

> > +If you know which patch has caused the problem to appear, you should also add
> > +the email address of its author to the Cc list of your bug report (this address
> > +is usually present in the 'From:' field of the patch header).  Additionally,
> > +it is recommended to notify all of the people involved in the process of
> > +merging the patch (you can find their addresses in the 'Signed-off-by:' and
> > +'Acked-by:' or 'Reviewed-by:' fields of the patch header).  This way you can
> > +increase the probability that someone "in the know" will notice the report and
> > +respond to it quickly.  Apart from this, you should make it clear that your
> > +message contains a bug report, for example by adding the word "BUG" in front
> > +of the message's subject line.  If the bug is a regression (ie. one of the
> > +previous kernel versions worked correctly), please put the word "REGRESSION" in
> > +there instead.
> > +
> > +Unfortunately, sometimes bug reports are not responded to even if they contain
> > +all of the right email addresses etc.  If that happens to your bug report, you
> > +should first check if it has not been intercepted by a spam filter.  This is
> > +easy if you have sent the report to a mailing list, since in that case it only
> > +is necessary to look into the list's archives to see if the message is there.
> > +If it turns out that the report has reached the list and no one is responding to
> > +it, the developers might have overlooked it or they may be too busy to take care
> > +of it right now.  In that case you should wait for some time (usually, a couple
> > +of days) and send it once again (if you resend the report, you may add the word
> > +"resend" to the message's subject to indicate that this is not the first time).
> > +If that does not help and there still is no response, it is best to open a new
> > +entry in the Bugzilla at http://bugzilla.kernel.org .  If you have already done
> > +that, send messages to the appropriate lists and people periodically to remind
> > +of the issue.
> 
> What about recommending a cronjob that resends the bug report every 
> three days?   ;-)
> 
> Really, we must define _one_ way for people to report a bug, and how 
> developers are reminded is _our_ job.

Well, who's "we" in that context?  IOW, who's job exactly it's supposed to be?

> >...
> > +Generally, the following things are appreciated in a bug report:
> >...
> 
> If you expect people to read and follow this, wouldn't it be easier to
> simply point them to open the bug in Bugzilla where we already have a
> template asking these questions?

I don't think so and please refer to the examples above.

> You could replace the whole contents of this file with:
> Go to http://bugzilla.kernel.org/ and click on "Enter a new bug report".
> 
> It's a pity that we manage to add/change an average of 100.000 bugs^Wlines
> of code each month, but do not have one generally accepted and working 
> process for bug reports.

It's a pity that we do not have one, indeed, and so perhaps it's a good idea
to try to create one?  Not necessarily focusing on the Bugzilla for a little
while. ;-)

Greetings,
Rafael