Do you monitor your Python packages in inux distributions?

Ben Finney ben+python at benfinney.id.au
Sun Mar 13 21:17:39 EDT 2011


skip at pobox.com writes:

> […] I got a hit on an Ubuntu bug tracker about a SpamBayes bug. As it
> turns out, Ubuntu distributes an outdated (read: no longer maintained)
> version of SpamBayes. The bug had been fixed over three years ago in
> the current version. Had I known this I could probably have saved them
> some trouble, at least by suggesting that they upgrade.

If the maintainer of Ubuntu's spambayes knew it was a bug in the
upstream package, but failed to contact upstream (the SpamBayes team),
the maintainer of Ubuntu's spambayes isn't doing their job properly IMO.

> I have a question for you people who develop and maintain Python-based
> packages. How closely, if at all, do you monitor the bug trackers of
> Linux distributions (or Linux-like packaging systems like MacPorts)
> for activity related to your packages?

Not at all. If someone uses code, finds a bug in that code, thinks the
bug should be addressed in that code upstream, it's their responsibility
to report that using the contact details and/or bug tracker provided.

For OS distributions, that means the package maintainers are responsible
for reporting the bug upstream if it's suspected or determined to be a
bug in the upstream code base.

> How do you encourage such projects to push bug reports and/or fixes
> upstream to you?

Make the bug tracker and/or contact email address available at the same
location where the code itself is obtained. Be responsive to whomever
reports bugs using those channels. Track the bug reports effectively and
reliably.

-- 
 \         “I'm beginning to think that life is just one long Yoko Ono |
  `\   album; no rhyme or reason, just a lot of incoherent shrieks and |
_o__)                                      then it's over.” —Ian Wolff |
Ben Finney



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