[gentoo-dev] Re: Closing bugs [was: New Bugzilla HOWTO]

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

R Hill posted <daqjb7$8m2$1@sea.gmane.org>, excerpted below,  on Sun, 10
Jul 2005 01:39:18 -0600:

> Marco Matthies wrote:
>> Nathan L. Adams wrote:
>> The person reporting the bug can reopen the bug, as he/she is in a
>> perfect position to test the fix.
> 
> Just a thought I've had from time to time - why can't people other than 
> the reporter reopen a resolved bug report?  I'm thinking that there are 
> cases where the reporter files a PR that gets marked resolved for 
> whatever reason and then buggers off.  Later someone else comes across 
> the bug and can either comment in the closed bug and hope someone 
> notices or file a new report which will inevitably be marked Dupe. 
> What's the correct thing to do in this situation?

Here's how I've handled it.  I've filed a new bug, mentioning the other
one by number (which bugzilla will automatically turn clicky to reach the
old one, if you give it the proper hint, bugzilla #xxxxxx) in my report,
and detailing why the issue remains, either detailing how this report is
the same issue and the fix either wasn't right or wasn't reapplied to a
new version, or detailing how this one may /look/ similar but is /not/ the
same, because x and y and z are different.

This works well enough, because it's known that only the original reporter
can reopen, so they aren't expecting you to do something you can't do. 
Further, you preempt the duplicate thing, by saying why this one is
different or why the problem reoccurred.  For those unable to trace the
technical details, simply saying the same problem appears to occur with a
new version, or still occurs for them with the old version, or whatever,
should suffice.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html


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