Closing fixed bugs; consider the "fixed" tag

Closing fixed bugs; consider the "fixed" tag

[Stefan Kangas]

Hi emacs-devel,

We tend to end up with many bugs that have been fixed, yet remain open.
I have closed several dozens of such bugs in the last month or two.

When you fix a bug, it is fine to close it immediately, even if the
change was not yet tested/reviewed.  It takes 30 days before closed bugs
are archived, which in 99.9 % of cases is more than enough for people to
send a reply.  It is also trivial to reopen bugs, where needed.

If you want to wait with closing a fixed bug, I recommend always adding
the "fixed" tag, which is documented like this:

    "This bug is fixed or worked around, but there's still an issue that
    needs to be resolved." - https://debbugs.gnu.org/Developer.html#tags

(In the case of a fixed bug, testing and/or reviewing the change would
be the "issue that needs to be resolved [before it can be closed]".)

Following the above practice will facilitate locating fixed bugs, and
closing them en masse if need be.  These simple measures will be able to
save us a lot of work, much more than I think people generally realize.

Thanks.

Re: Closing fixed bugs; consider the "fixed" tag

[Po Lu]

Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi emacs-devel,
>
> We tend to end up with many bugs that have been fixed, yet remain open.
> I have closed several dozens of such bugs in the last month or two.
>
> When you fix a bug, it is fine to close it immediately, even if the
> change was not yet tested/reviewed.  It takes 30 days before closed bugs
> are archived, which in 99.9 % of cases is more than enough for people to
> send a reply.  It is also trivial to reopen bugs, where needed.
>
> If you want to wait with closing a fixed bug, I recommend always adding
> the "fixed" tag, which is documented like this:
>
>     "This bug is fixed or worked around, but there's still an issue that
>     needs to be resolved." - https://debbugs.gnu.org/Developer.html#tags
>
> (In the case of a fixed bug, testing and/or reviewing the change would
> be the "issue that needs to be resolved [before it can be closed]".)
>
> Following the above practice will facilitate locating fixed bugs, and
> closing them en masse if need be.  These simple measures will be able to
> save us a lot of work, much more than I think people generally realize.
>
> Thanks.

OK, and thanks for taking all this drudgery upon yourself.

Re: Closing fixed bugs; consider the "fixed" tag

[Jens Schmidt]

On 2023-10-21  14:19, Stefan Kangas wrote:

> We tend to end up with many bugs that have been fixed, yet remain open.
> I have closed several dozens of such bugs in the last month or two.

What if I, as a non-maintainer and non-triager, come across such a bug
that looks like it could be closed?  A bug that I found just by chance,
where I haven't been involved yet at all.

Re: Closing fixed bugs; consider the "fixed" tag

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2023 19:01:09 +0200
> From: Jens Schmidt <jschmidt4gnu@vodafonemail.de>
> 
> On 2023-10-21  14:19, Stefan Kangas wrote:
> 
> > We tend to end up with many bugs that have been fixed, yet remain open.
> > I have closed several dozens of such bugs in the last month or two.
> 
> What if I, as a non-maintainer and non-triager, come across such a bug
> that looks like it could be closed?  A bug that I found just by chance,
> where I haven't been involved yet at all.

Ask whether to close it (as a message to the bug address.)