doc-debian 4.0.2ubuntu1 / usr / share / doc / debian / bug-maint-info.txt

Information regarding the bug processing system for package maintainers and bug
                                    triagers

   Initially, a bug report is submitted by a user as an ordinary mail
   message to submit@bugs.debian.org. This will then be given a number,
   acknowledged to the user, and forwarded to debian-bugs-dist. If the
   submitter included a Package line listing a package with a known
   maintainer the maintainer will get a copy too.

   The Subject line will have Bug#nnn: added, and the Reply-To will be set
   to include both the submitter of the report and nnn@bugs.debian.org.
     * Closing bug reports
     * Followup messages
     * Severity levels
     * Tags for bug reports
     * Recording that you have passed on a bug report
     * Changing bug ownership
     * Incorrectly listed package maintainers
     * Reopening, reassigning and manipulating bugs
     * Subscribing to bugs
     * More-or-less obsolete subject-scanning feature
     * Obsolete X-Debian-PR: quiet feature

Closing bug reports

   Debian bug reports should be closed when the problem is fixed. Problems
   in packages can only be considered fixed once a package that includes
   the bug fix enters the Debian archive.

   Normally, the only people that should close a bug report are the
   submitter of the bug and the maintainer(s) of the package against which
   the bug is filed. There are exceptions to this rule, for example, the
   bugs filed against unknown packages or certain generic pseudo-packages.
   When in doubt, don't close bugs, first ask for advice on the
   debian-devel mailing list.

   Bug reports should be closed by sending email to
   nnn-done@bugs.debian.org. The message body needs to contain an
   explanation of how the bug was fixed.

   With the emails received from the bug tracking system, all you need to
   do to close the bug is to make a Reply in your mail reader program and
   edit the To field to say nnn-done@bugs.debian.org instead of
   nnn@bugs.debian.org (nnn-close is provided as an alias for nnn-done).

   Where applicable, please supply a Version line in the pseudo-header of
   your message when closing a bug, so that the bug tracking system knows
   which releases of the package contain the fix.

   The person closing the bug, the person who submitted it and the
   debian-bugs-closed mailing list will each get a notification about the
   change in status of the report. The submitter and the mailing list will
   also receive the contents of the message sent to nnn-done.

Followup messages

   The bug tracking system will include the submitter's address and the
   bug address (nnn@bugs.debian.org) in the Reply-To header after
   forwarding the bug report. Please note that these are two distinct
   addresses.

   If a developer wishes to reply to a bug report they should simply reply
   to the message, respecting the Reply-To header. This will not close the
   bug.

   The bug tracking system will receive the message at
   nnn@bugs.debian.org, pass it on to the package maintainer, file the
   reply with the rest of the logs for that bug report and forward it to
   debian-bugs-dist.

   Sending a message to nnn-submitter@bugs.debian.org will explicitly
   email the submitter of the bug and place a copy in the Bug tracking
   system. The message will not be sent to package maintainer.

   If you wish to send a followup message which is not appropriate for
   debian-bugs-dist you can do so by sending it to
   nnn-quiet@bugs.debian.org or nnn-maintonly@bugs.debian.org. Mail to
   nnn-quiet@bugs.debian.org is filed in the Bug Tracking System but is
   not delivered to any individuals or mailing lists. Mail to
   nnn-maintonly@bugs.debian.org is filed in the Bug Tracking System and
   is delivered only to the maintainer of the package in question.

   Do not use the "reply to all recipients" or "followup" feature of your
   mailer unless you intend to edit down the recipients substantially. In
   particular, see that you don't send followup messages to
   submit@bugs.debian.org.

   For more information about headers to suppress ACK messages and how to
   send carbon copies using the Bug Tracking System, see the instructions
   for reporting bugs.

Severity levels

   The bug system records a severity level with each bug report. This is
   set to normal by default, but can be overridden either by supplying a
   Severity line in the pseudo-header when the bug is submitted (see the
   instructions for reporting bugs), or by using the severity command with
   the control request server.

   The severity levels are:

   critical
          makes unrelated software on the system (or the whole system)
          break, or causes serious data loss, or introduces a security
          hole on systems where you install the package.

   grave
          makes the package in question unusable or mostly so, or causes
          data loss, or introduces a security hole allowing access to the
          accounts of users who use the package.

   serious
          is a severe violation of Debian policy (roughly, it violates a
          "must" or "required" directive), or, in the package maintainer's
          or release manager's opinion, makes the package unsuitable for
          release.

   important
          a bug which has a major effect on the usability of a package,
          without rendering it completely unusable to everyone.

   normal
          the default value, applicable to most bugs.

   minor
          a problem which doesn't affect the package's usefulness, and is
          presumably trivial to fix.

   wishlist
          for any feature request, and also for any bugs that are very
          difficult to fix due to major design considerations.

   Certain severities are considered release-critical, meaning the bug
   will have an impact on releasing the package with the stable release of
   Debian. Currently, these are critical, grave and serious. For complete
   and canonical rules on what issues merit these severities, see the list
   of Release-Critical Issues for Lenny.

Tags for bug reports

   Each bug can have zero or more of a set of given tags. These tags are
   displayed in the list of bugs when you look at a package's page, and
   when you look at the full bug log.

   Tags can be set by supplying a Tags line in the pseudo-header when the
   bug is submitted (see the instructions for reporting bugs), or by using
   the tags command with the control request server. Separate multiple
   tags with commas, spaces, or both.

   The current bug tags are:

   patch
          A patch or some other easy procedure for fixing the bug is
          included in the bug logs. If there's a patch, but it doesn't
          resolve the bug adequately or causes some other problems, this
          tag should not be used.

   wontfix
          This bug won't be fixed. Possibly because this is a choice
          between two arbitrary ways of doing things and the maintainer
          and submitter prefer different ways of doing things, possibly
          because changing the behaviour will cause other, worse, problems
          for others, or possibly for other reasons.

   moreinfo
          This bug can't be addressed until more information is provided
          by the submitter. The bug will be closed if the submitter
          doesn't provide more information in a reasonable (few months)
          timeframe. This is for bugs like "It doesn't work". What doesn't
          work?

   unreproducible
          This bug can't be reproduced on the maintainer's system.
          Assistance from third parties is needed in diagnosing the cause
          of the problem.

   help
          The maintainer is requesting help with dealing with this bug.

   pending
          A solution to this bug has been found and an upload will be made
          soon.

   fixed
          This bug is fixed or worked around (by a non-maintainer upload,
          for example), but there's still an issue that needs to be
          resolved. This tag replaces the old "fixed" severity.

   security
          This bug describes a security problem in a package (e.g., bad
          permissions allowing access to data that shouldn't be
          accessible; buffer overruns allowing people to control a system
          in ways they shouldn't be able to; denial of service attacks
          that should be fixed, etc). Most security bugs should also be
          set at critical or grave severity.

   upstream
          This bug applies to the upstream part of the package.

   confirmed
          The maintainer has looked at, understands, and basically agrees
          with the bug, but has yet to fix it. (Use of this tag is
          optional; it is intended mostly for maintainers who need to
          manage large numbers of open bugs.)

   fixed-upstream
          The bug has been fixed by the upstream maintainer, but not yet
          in the package (for whatever reason: perhaps it is too
          complicated to backport the change or too minor to be worth
          bothering).

   fixed-in-experimental
          The bug has been fixed in the package of the experimental
          distribution, but not yet in the unstable distribution.

   d-i
          This bug is relevant to the development of debian-installer. It
          is expected that this will be used when the bug affects
          installer development but is not filed against a package that
          forms a direct part of the installer itself.

   ipv6
          This bug affects support for Internet Protocol version 6.

   lfs
          This bug affects support for large files (over 2 gigabytes).

   l10n
          This bug is relevant to the localisation of the package.

   potato
          This bug particularly applies to the potato release of Debian.

   woody
          This bug particularly applies to the woody distribution.

   sarge
          This is a distribution tag, which has two effects. When set on a
          bug, the bug can only affect sarge (though it may also affect
          other distributions if other distribution tags are set) but
          otherwise normal buggy/fixed/absent rules apply. The bug also
          should not be archived until it is fixed in sarge.

   sarge-ignore
          This release-critical bug is to be ignored for the purposes of
          releasing sarge. This tag should only be used by the release
          manager; do not set it yourself without explicit authorization
          from them.

   etch
          This is a distribution tag, which has two effects. When set on a
          bug, the bug can only affect etch (though it may also affect
          other distributions if other distribution tags are set) but
          otherwise normal buggy/fixed/absent rules apply. The bug also
          should not be archived until it is fixed in etch.

   etch-ignore
          This release-critical bug is to be ignored for the purposes of
          releasing etch. This tag should only be used by the release
          manager; do not set it yourself without explicit authorization
          from them.

   lenny
          This is a release tag, which has two effects. When set on a bug,
          the bug can only affect lenny (though it may also affect other
          releases if other release tags are set) but otherwise normal
          buggy/fixed/absent rules apply. The bug also should not be
          archived until it is fixed in lenny.

   lenny-ignore
          This release-critical bug is to be ignored for the purposes of
          releasing lenny. This tag should only be used by the release
          manager(s); do not set it yourself without explicit
          authorization from them.

   squeeze
          This is a release tag, which has two effects. When set on a bug,
          the bug can only affect squeeze (though it may also affect other
          releases if other release tags are set) but otherwise normal
          buggy/fixed/absent rules apply. The bug also should not be
          archived until it is fixed in squeeze.

   squeeze-ignore
          This release-critical bug is to be ignored for the purposes of
          releasing squeeze. This tag should only be used by the release
          manager(s); do not set it yourself without explicit
          authorization from them.

   sid
          This is a release tag, which has two effects. When set on a bug,
          the bug can only affect sid (though it may also affect other
          releases if other release tags are set) but otherwise normal
          buggy/fixed/absent rules apply. The bug also should not be
          archived until it is fixed in sid.

   experimental
          This is a release tag, which has two effects. When set on a bug,
          the bug can only affect experimental (though it may also affect
          other releases if other release tags are set) but otherwise
          normal buggy/fixed/absent rules apply. The bug also should not
          be archived until it is fixed in experimental.

   The meanings of the latter 8 distribution-specific tags have changed
   recently; the -ignore tags ignore the bug for the purposes of testing
   propagation. The release tags indicate that the bug in question should
   not be archived until it is fixed in the set of releases specified. The
   release tags also indicate that a bug should only be considered buggy
   in the set of releases specified. [In other words, the bug is absent in
   any release whose corresponding release tag is not set if any release
   tags are set; otherwise the normal found/fixed rules apply.]

   Release tags should not be used if proper versioning of the bug would
   achieve the desired effect, as they require manual addition and
   removal. If you are unsure if a release tag is required, contact the
   Debian BTS Administrators () or the release team for advice.

Recording that you have passed on a bug report

   When a developer forwards a bug report to the developer of the upstream
   source package from which the Debian package is derived, they should
   note this in the bug tracking system as follows:

   Make sure that the To field of your message to the author has only the
   author(s) address(es) in it; put the person who reported the bug,
   nnn-forwarded@bugs.debian.org and nnn@bugs.debian.org in the CC field.

   Ask the author to preserve the CC to nnn-forwarded@bugs.debian.org when
   they reply, so that the bug tracking system will file their reply with
   the original report. These messages are only filed and are not sent on;
   to send a message as normal, send them to nnn@bugs.debian.org as well.

   When the bug tracking system gets a message at nnn-forwarded it will
   mark the relevant bug as having been forwarded to the address(es) in
   the To field of the message it gets, if the bug is not already marked
   as forwarded.

   You can also manipulate the "forwarded to" information by sending
   messages to control@bugs.debian.org.

Changing bug ownership

   In cases where the person responsible for fixing a bug is not the
   assigned maintainer for the associated package (for example, when the
   package is maintained by a team), it may be useful to record this fact
   in the bug tracking system. To help with this, each bug may optionally
   have an owner.

   The owner can be set by supplying an Owner line in the pseudo-header
   when the bug is submitted (see the instructions for reporting bugs), or
   by using the owner and noowner commands with the control request
   server.

Incorrectly listed package maintainers

   If the maintainer of a package is listed incorrectly, this is usually
   because the maintainer has changed recently, and the new maintainer
   hasn't yet uploaded a new version of the package with a changed
   Maintainer control file field. This will be fixed when the package is
   uploaded; alternatively, the archive maintainers can override the
   maintainer record of a package manually, for example if a rebuild and
   reupload of the package is not expected to be needed soon. Contact
   override-change@debian.org for changes to the override file.

Reopening, reassigning and manipulating bugs

   It is possible to reassign bug reports to other packages, to reopen
   erroneously-closed ones, to modify the information saying to where, if
   anywhere, a bug report has been forwarded, to change the severities and
   titles of reports, to set the ownership of bugs, to merge and unmerge
   bug reports, and to record the versions of packages in which bugs were
   found and in which they were fixed. This is done by sending mail to
   control@bugs.debian.org.

   The format of these messages is described in another document available
   on the World Wide Web or in the file bug-maint-mailcontrol.txt. A plain
   text version can also be obtained by mailing the word help to the
   server at the address above.

Subscribing to bugs

   The bug tracking system also allows bug submitters, developers and
   other interested third parties to subscribe to individual bugs. This
   feature can be used by those wishing to keep an eye on a bug, without
   having to subscribe to a package through the PTS. All messages that are
   received at nnn@bugs.debian.org, are sent to subscribers.

   Subscribing to a bug can be done by sending an email to
   nnn-subscribe@bugs.debian.org. The subject and body of the email are
   ignored by the BTS. Once this message is processed, users are sent a
   confirmation message that they will need to reply to before they are
   sent the messages relating to that bug.

   It is also possible to unsubscribe from a bug. Unsubscribing can be
   done by sending an email to nnn-unsubscribe@bugs.debian.org. The
   subject and body of the email are again ignored by the BTS. Users will
   be sent a confirmation message which they must reply to if they wish to
   be unsubscribed from the bug.

   By default, the address subscribed is the one found in the From header.
   If you wish to subscribe another address to a bug, you will need to
   encode the address to be subscribed into the subscription message. This
   takes the form of: nnn-subscribe-localpart=example.com@bugs.debian.org.
   That example would send localpart@example.com a subscription message
   for bug nnn. The @ sign must be encoded by changing it to an = sign.
   Similarly, an unsubscription takes the form
   nnn-unsubscribe-localpart=example.com@bugs.debian.org. In both cases,
   the subject and body of the email will be forwarded to the email
   address within the request for confirmation.

More-or-less obsolete subject-scanning feature

   Messages that arrive at submit or bugs whose Subject starts Bug#nnn
   will be treated as having been sent to nnn@bugs.debian.org. This is
   both for backwards compatibility with mail forwarded from the old
   addresses, and to catch followup mail sent to submit by mistake (for
   example, by using reply to all recipients).

   A similar scheme operates for maintonly, done, quiet and forwarded,
   which treat mail arriving with a Subject tag as having been sent to the
   corresponding nnn-whatever@bugs.debian.org address.

   Messages arriving at plain forwarded and done -- ie, with no bug report
   number in the address -- and without a bug number in the Subject will
   be filed under "junk" and kept for a few weeks, but otherwise ignored.

Obsolete X-Debian-PR: quiet feature

   It used to be possible to prevent the bug tracking system from
   forwarding anywhere messages it received at debian-bugs, by putting an
   X-Debian-PR: quiet line in the actual mail header.

   This header line is now ignored. Instead, send your message to quiet or
   nnn-quiet (or maintonly or nnn-maintonly).
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