zack's home page/ blog/ posts/ 2009/ 11/ RC bugs of the week - week 11

RCBW - week #11

Here is this week squashes, by yours truly:

  • 16/11/2009 bug #553120 - db4.2 - add missing ldconfig invocation (3 at once, YAY!)
  • 17/11/2009 bug #553120 - db4.2 - idem
  • 18/11/2009 bug #553120 - db4.2 - idem
  • 19/11/2009 bug #553107 - libsigc++0c2 - move dh_installdeb to fix lack of ldconfig in postinst
  • 20/11/2009 bug #553106 - db4.6 - mark as closed an already fixed ldconfig bug
  • 21/11/2009 bug #533888 - ddclient - fix debconf failure w/ non-interactive frontend (patch by Jonathan Niehof)
  • 22/11/2009 bug #553125 - libvdkxdb2-2c2 - move dh_installdeb to fix lack of ldconfig in postinst

This week I've been both lazy and lucky, with a single NMU of db4.2 3 RC bugs were gone (well, truth to be said, I've discovered later on that db4.2 is not meant to be released with Squeeze, but well, stuff happens ...) and with some triaging a few more were gone too. The rest is nothing special.

Also, during past week, Tim got back to my welcome message, adding some interesting considerations. Beside the issue of personal sponsorship, I fully agree that we used to lack pointers to NMU activity in NM. Now it is a bit better, though. As an AM, I pose the "please fix at least 2 RC bugs" question, and the usual outcome is the sponsoring of NMUs prepared by applicants. But surely we lack a more general "culture" of NMU, which is de facto more and more needed to actually deliver our releases.

In fact, my RCBW initiative is not meant to make other people feel bad (hello Gunnar, we all love you and your work, and you should know that :-) ). Rather, it is meant to convince people that fixing RC bugs (at least some of them which are nevertheless a huge slide of the total) is easier than what we might think and help fighting the boredom. Not sure it is being successful in its "marketing" facet, but it has surely been fun for me thus far!

Read available comments below or add your own.
comment 1
Is there a good guide for how to report/fix/patch a bug in debian? Like describing the proper way to go about it? I'd like to help but currently I don't know how to deal with checking the right version (unstable/experimental/upstream svn), and then being able to install the package without installing it permanently. So I can install it to search for the bug and then remove it after I'm done? Any help?
Comment by Anonymous — dom 22 nov 2009 19:36:29 UTC
re: comment 1

AFAIK there is no "bug fixing guide" for Debian, but it is not really something which is really Debian-specific either.

Regarding how to test a package, I usually don't care and install it on my "real machine" (unless the bug menaces to be really disruptive of couse) and then remove it a posteriori (yes, I keep a list of the package I will want to remove at the end of a debugging session). Alternatively, which is something you would need anyhow if you are a DD that eventually wants to NMU, you can install and test packages in a chroot. Helper tools in that respect are pbuilder/cowbuilder/schroot (look for packages with those names in the archive).

Thanks for your help!

Comment by zack — lun 23 nov 2009 08:28:23 UTC