Arch Linux

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,601

Upstream Bug Reporting Etiquette [solved]

I've a question.  Some distributions discourage upstream reporting by users so as not to overwhelm upstream developers and to provide a single cohesive point of contact for the distribution.  Errors are posted at the distro bug report site and are reported upstream by the maintainer.

I get the distinct impression this does not hold true for Arch.  Before I go off promoting my bug reports upstream, is this proper?

If so, the bug reports are likely to have references to Arch when describing the problem and how to reproduce it.  Since I am not officially part of the Arch developer / maintainer team, I do not want to represent myself as such.  Recommendations?   

Thank you.

Last edited by ewaller (2010-07-01 13:00:44)

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dcc24

Member

Registered: 2009-10-31

Posts: 737

Re: Upstream Bug Reporting Etiquette [solved]

FWIW, I think relying on package maintainers of a specific distro is unfair for those maintainers. They are already responsible for tracking the statuses of A LOT of packages and updating/patching them as necessary. If they were to go through every single bug reported and forward the relevant ones upstream, it would simply be overwhelming.

Newbie-oriented distros like Ubuntu might have people that simply track user reported bugs. But for Arch, the situation is actually better since most users are proficient enough in Linux so they are more than capable of reporting a bug upstream

Last edited by dcc24 (2010-07-01 07:03:59)

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Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,648

Website

Re: Upstream Bug Reporting Etiquette [solved]

When I get assigned a bug, I like it when there is already an upstream bug report and a link provided.  Some upstreams are grumpier than others  (cough... glibc... cough), but for most project a bug report directly from a user is fine.   As a general guideline, always check the PKGBUILD to see if any non-upstream patches were applied and try rebuilding it yourself to confirm you can replicate the bug in the software before filing a bug upstream.

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ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,601

Re: Upstream Bug Reporting Etiquette [solved]

Thanks Guys.

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues.— Dionysius of Halicarnassus
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How to Ask Questions the Smart Way