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.

* 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".
  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.