Re: How to reply to bug reports

[Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>]

Don Armstrong <don@donarmstrong.com> writes:

> On Fri, 08 Aug 2008, Stefan Monnier wrote:
>> > Can someone please tell me how to reply correctly to a bug report.
>> 
>> > If I do not cc bug-gnu-emacs, my reply won't appear there and chances to
>> > get feedback from other developers are low as I noticed a couple of
>> > times.  If I do cc bug-gnu-emacs I apparently file a new bug report as
>> > already happened twice this week.
>> 
>> AFAIK, the only place you should need reply is to
>> NNN@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com and that should go to all the right
>> places (i.e. to bug-gnu-emacs, to the OP, and hopefully to most other
>> people who participated in this bug report). 
>
> It doesn't currently go to the submitter; the logic behind this is
> that the submitter doesn't always care about the machinations going
> about to fix the bug.

I agree with Stefan. The submitter and others who participated should
always be cc'd. All other systems I'm on do so, so not doing so
violates the principle of least surprise. As a submitter, I like to
see the machinations since it shows that at least my report is getting
attention. Best of all is the email you get when the report is closed.

Not only that, most "machinations" are requests for additional
information from the OP or to ask them to test the CVS version.
Forcing the maintainer to go back to the archives to find the OP's
address is unnecessary work.

Please consider fixing this behavior. Thanks.

-- 
Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com>  http://www.newt.com/wohler/  GnuPG ID:610BD9AD