emacs/admin/notes/bug-triage

HOW TO TRIAGE EMACS BUGS  -*- outline -*-

This document just describes the procedure of triaging bugs, for information on
how to work with the bug tracker, see the bugtracker file in this same directory
for the basics.  You can also install the debbugs ELPA package for access to M-x
debbugs-gnu, an emacs interface to debbugs, and M-x debbugs-org, an emacs
interface via org-mode.

* Bug backlog triage procedure

The goal of this triage is to prune down the list of old bugs, closing
the ones that are not reproducible on the current release.

  1. To start, enter debbugs mode (either debbugs-gnu, debbugs-org, or via the
     web browser), and accept the default list option of bugs that have severity
     serious, important, or normal.
  2. This will also show closed bugs that have yet to be archived.  You can
     filter these out in debbugs-gnu with "x" (debbugs-gnu-toggle-suppress).
  3. For each bug, do the following:
     - Read the mail thread for the bug.  Find out if anyone has been able to
       reproduce this on the current release.
     - If someone has been able to, then your work is finished for this bug.
     - Make sure there's enough information to reproduce the bug.  It should be
       very clear how to reproduce.  If not, please ask for specific steps to
       reproduce.  If you don't get them, and you can't reproduce without them,
       you can close as "doneunreproducible".
     - If no one has mentioned being able to reproduce on the current release,
       read the bug description and attempt to reproduce on an emacs started
       with "emacs -Q" (the goal is to not let our personal configs interfere
       with bug testing).
     - If you can reproduce, then reply on the thread (either on the original
       message, or anywhere you find appropriate) that you can reproduce this on
       the current release. If your reproduction gives additional info (such as
       a backtrace), then add that as well, since it will help whoever attempts
       to fix it.
     - If you can't reproduce, state that you can't reproduce it on the current
       release, ask if they can try again against the current release.  Tag the
       bug as "unreproducable".  Wait a few weeks for their reply - if they can
       reproduce it, then that's great, otherwise close as "doneunreproducible".
     - If the bug ends up still open, make sure the priority and other tags
       seems reasonable.
  4. Your changes will take some time to take effect.  After a period of minutes
     to hours, you will get a mail telling you the control message has been
     processed.  At this point, if there were no errors detected, you and
     everyone else can see your changes. If there are errors, read the error
     text - if you need help, consulting the bugtracker documentation in this
     same directory.

* New bug triage process

The goal of the new bug triage process is similar to the backlog triage process,
except that the focus is on prioritizing the bug, and making sure it is has
necessary information for others to act on.

For each new bug, ask the following questions:

  1. Is the bug report written in a way to be easy to reproduce (starts from
     emacs -Q, etc.)?  If not, ask the reporter to try and reproduce it on an
     emacs without customization.
  2. Is the bug report written against the latest emacs?  If not, try to
     reproduce on the latest version, and if it can't be reproduced, ask the
     reporter to try again with the latest version.
  3. Is the bug the same as another bug?  If so, merge the bugs.
  4. What is the priority of the bug?  Add a priority: critical, grave, serious,
     important, normal, minor, or wishlist.
  5. Who should be the owner?  This depends on what component the bug is part
     of.  You can look at the admin/MAINTAINERS file (then you can just search
     emacs-devel to match the name with an email address).