Re: Planned changes for bugzilla.kernel.org to reduce the "Bugzilla blues"

From: Artem S. Tashkinov
Date: Sun Oct 02 2022 - 05:07:19 EST




On 10/2/22 09:03, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
Hi Artem,

On Sat, Oct 1, 2022 at 1:21 PM Artem S. Tashkinov <aros@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On 10/1/22 10:57, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
On 01.10.22 12:47, Artem S. Tashkinov wrote:
On 10/1/22 10:39, Greg KH wrote:
On Sat, Oct 01, 2022 at 10:30:22AM +0000, Artem S. Tashkinov wrote:

I have a 20+ years experience in IT and some kernel issues are just
baffling in terms of trying to understand what to do about them.

Here's an example: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=216274

What should I do about that? Who's responsible for this? Who should I
CC?

Input subsystem.

It's great you've replied immediately, what about hundreds or even
thousands of other bug reports where people have no clue who has to be
CC'ed?

Quoting from https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/reporting-issues.html:

"[...] try your best guess which kernel part might be causing the issue.
Check the MAINTAINERS file [...] In case tricks like these don’t bring
you any further, try to search the internet on how to narrow down the
driver or subsystem in question. And if you are unsure which it is: just
try your best guess, somebody will help you if you guessed poorly. [...]"

HTH, Ciao, Thorsten

Absolute most people:

* Will never read this document
* Will not be able to "search the internet on how to narrow down the
driver or subsystem in question"

So how did these people arrive at "bugzilla" in the first place? ;-)

Google kernel bug -> bugzilla.kernel.org


Or is this a case of "if all you have is a hammer...", so you
actively start looking for a bugzilla?
I.e. people who are used to bugzilla/discourse/slack/irc/trac/... will
look for how to use bugzilla/discourse/slack/irc/trac/... to interact
with the developer and/or maintainer.

The definitive guide is the MAINTAINERS file. If there is a (rare)
corresponding "B" entry, you can use that. Else fall back to the
"M" and "L" entries. "C" might be good for an initial query, but not
for the actual reporting, as there's even less traceability than with
mailing lists (the latter are archived by lore).

Just like I said before email sucks terribly for bug reporting except
for rare cases when the developer notices your email right away and
promptly submits a patch. This happens once in a blue moon unfortunately.

Best regards,
Artem