Re: Changing PACKAGE_BUGREPORT?

[Bob Proulx]

Stepan Kasal wrote:
> Eric Blake wrote:
> > [...]  I am thinking that changing the reporting address to cygwin
> > first would allow myself and other cygwin developers to filter out real
> > upstream bugs from cygwin-specific issues, avoiding some of the confusion
> > apparent in the mentioned bug-findutils thread.
> 
> I understand your point: in the Cygwin port the ratio of platform specific
> reports is extra high.  But it is still a port, and the upstream maintainers
> are often eager to hear about problems with the Cygwin port, some of them
> might have a Cygwin port at their hand, etc.

I think I agree with Eric.  Cygwin is such a special case.  It is a
port of free software to a non-free platform that is generally reviled
by many on the net.  (Sorry Eric!)  Many reports come through with
Cygwin specific problems.  But GNU maintainers don't tend to use
non-free platforms.  I don't believe any of the upstream folks have an
MS platform.  (But if they did I am sure they would use Cygwin on it
though.)  This is even an FAQ on the coreutils page directing people
to report Cygwin bugs to the Cygwin mailing lists.

> Let me give an example: how would you feel if Fedora modifies the package
> so that it tells the users to report to bugzilla.redhat.com?
> ...
> Sure such a step of Fedora would induce negative feelings.

It depends on how it is handled.  On Debian systems if you run
"reportbug coreutils" for example it would send the bug report to the
Debian bug tracking system.  One of the jobs of the maintainer is to
forward bugs as appropriate upstream.  This sending of bug reports
into the Debian BTS has not induced any negative feelings that I can
determine.  I think most distros have their own bug tracking.

I think one of the important points in the discussion not yet
mentioned is that free software is built by people who volunteer their
time.  Good karma is built up by giving credit where credit is due.
Even if it is asked that bugs are reported to a packager it is
important that the impression given to the user isn't that the
packager is taking credit for the source code.  I know that is the
furthest thing on your mind.  You are simply trying to make the best
package that you can and are working the problem.

Bob