Re: xargs -i explanation not clear enough without examples

[James Youngman]

address@hidden (Bob Proulx) writes:

(I have removed <address@hidden> from the CC: list)

> The Debian BTS has an extensive collection of reports on findutils.

Yes, I've read it.  It seems to contain a diverse mix of 

 * Irreproducible problems or things that may no longer be repeatable
 * Problem reports with enclosed patches
 * Not-a-bug problems
 * Probable bugs that might well need fixing

> (Including one from me with a patch for large environments which I
> would dearly love to see incorporated.)  Kevin Dalley was both the GNU
> maintainer and the Debian maintainer of findutils and so this is a
> natural place to scan for bug reports.

Yes.  As far as I know, Kevin has not stepped down as Debian
maintainer.  Even if he has or does, I don't plan to take that role
on.  However, I have access to a Debian box and am quite willing to
apply patches to the upstream source (modulo issues of size of
contribution versus copyright assignment).

> Note that without a Debian maintainer either this list of reports
> severely needs housecleaning.  There are definitely a few bogus and
> unreproducible reports there that should be closed.  But there are
> also quite a few good patches that have been made to the code
> downstream in the Debian packages which have not been able to make it
> into the upstream GNU source.  If possible you might want to start
> there.  That would clear up a large number of the bugs quickly and
> with the least amount of effort.

On the other hand, with Kevin being maintainer of both the upstream
source and the Debian code, there must be a reason why he didn't apply
the patches to the upstream code.   Any idea why that might be?

> There has not been an active maintainer of findutils for a while.  So
> there is likely to be such a large backlog that I just recommend that
> you start small and work up from there.  Otherwise you will get
> overwhelmed.

Yes, I'm acutely aware that I'm not that familiar with the code (yet).


-- 
James Youngman
Manchester, UK.