On Mon, 2005-08-15 at 08:54 -0700, Russ Allbery wrote: > I don't understand why people keep saying that upstream bug reporting > instructions are irrelevant to Debian. Surely I'm not the only person who > wants to be able to discuss some issues directly with upstream when > they're not in the slightest bit Debian-specific. (Not to mention that > the reporting instructions are sometimes also the *query* instructions, > which can be extremely useful.) And, with orphaned packages or packages > with busy maintainers, it's often better to take problems up with upstream > for practical reasons.
While exceptions certainly exist, most of the time, a user reporting a bug on a Debian package directly upstream is not appropriate. It is better for the user to first seek help from their distribution. Then, if it is clear that the issue is upstream's problem, take it up with them. I would further maintain that unless you download, build, install and test upstream's package without Debian patches, finding the same bug in their own untainted release, you cannot reliably say there is an upstream bug. Or even if you can satisfy yourself that the bug is upstream's, you might not have such luck convincing upstream. And if you're going to rebuild the package from source in order to make this determination, you have access through that exercise to the original README, complete with upstream bug reporting address, if they have supplied one there. So, it's not that the bug-reporting address is useless. It's that it is misleading to suggest to the user that bypassing filing a bug against the Debian package and going directly to upstream is recommended. If there is a way of presenting this information so that those with a legitimate need have easy access to it, while at the same time pointing the majority of the users at the Debian Bug Tracking System, then by all means, include it. But I doubt if anyone currently takes the care to make this distinction in their packages that include upstream bug-reporting addresses. Ben -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]