Package: bugs.debian.org Hi,
I suggested adding a new general bug tag "ftbfs" on irc and instantly got a number of supportive replies (Mattia Rizzolo, Adam Borowski, Jeremy Bicha and vaguely Adrian Bunk). The suggested tag name is "ftbfs". Let me propose the following tag description: The package fails to build from source. If the bug is assigned to a source package, that package fails to build. If the bug is assigned to a binary package, the affected source packages fail to build. The tag is applicable to non-standard build environments (e.g. using Build-Depends from experimental), but the severity should be below RC in such cases. Rationale We have a number of QA efforts in Debian that depend on packages being buildable. The following efforts come to my mind: * Some people (including Lucas Nussbaum and Adam Borowski) perform (partial) archive rebuilds. * The reproducible team encounters build failures fairly often. I * encountered a fair number of FTBFS while cross building Debian. The list is incomplete of course and more people collaborate on tracking FTBFS. Still it would help to better focus QA efforts. Having an automatic way to check whether a particular package FTBFS has the potential of saving time while diagnosing build failures and enables us to skip testing known-broken packages. We already have a fairly good notion of what "FTBFS" means. Adding the tag just formalizes that to the BTS. Using udd, I estimate that roughly 3% of our open bugs are FTBFS bugs. Downsides * Of course someone needs to do the tagging. Since the vast majority of FTBFS bugs are short-lived and the vast majority are filed by a small number of people, updating their templates will get us a significant tag coverage. I expect that the time saved from using the tag exceeds the cost of manually tagging the remainders after three months. * A fair number of FTBFS bugs is presently filed with binary packages (most of them non-RC). These would have to be reassigned to the corresponding source packages (or they indeed affect some other package). * Exposing the tag in tools like reportbug might make it more difficult to users trying to report bugs. It could be reserved for the expert level. Alternatives * It has been suggested to simply exclude any RC buggy packages from QA. That could be an incentive to keep your package RC-bug free. * Most FTBFS bugs can presently be identified by searching the subject for the word FTBFS. In udd one can match "title LIKE '%FTBFS%' OR title LIKE '%ftbfs%'". I believe that there is sufficient consensus for the addition of the tag. I am Ccing the bug to d-devel anyway in case someone wants to object. Helmut