RTEMS Patches (was Re: FTP client API)

[Ralf Corsepius]

On 04/23/2010 09:46 AM, Arnout Vandecappelle wrote:
>
> On Friday 23 April 2010 00:31:43, Chris Johns wrote:
>> Bugzilla provides a state driven database of open tickets. Changes
>> handled this way can be searched, linked, and managed openly with a full
>> history of the discussions attached to the ticket. The ticket is always
>> present so the history is always available. If you find a bug or suspect
>> a bug please add it. It is simple to say, not a problem, duplicate, or
>> fixed and to close it. For patches, if you are working on a change that
>> is big, or has a long life cycle then a ticket maybe be better.
>>
>> Patches to the mailing list are always welcome but can be lost or
>> maintainers may think someone else is handling it. I know I need to keep
>> a thread around in case I have missed a piece plus it can become
>> confusing knowing which patch or patch set is correct.
>
>   Interesting discussion...
>
>   In my experience, it is really necessary to put everything in a tracker or
> things will get lost.

Well, in my experience, in RTEMS, the opposite applies.

Patches are either applied immediately or "never". In rare occasion 
patches are dug out from some kind archive ... whether it's bugzilla or 
a list archive hardly matters ;)

> However, if something is put only on the tracker and
> not on the mailing list, it can also get lost.  There are always much fewer
> people who follow the tracker than those who follow the mailing list.
> Therefore, if a bug is put in the tracker but none of the maintainers can
> reproduce it, or if a feature is put in the tracker but none of the
> maintainers finds it sufficiently interesting, it will never get followed
> up.  If it were posted on the mailing list instead, there is a much higher
> chance that somebody can do something useful with it, even if it never ends
> up in the core.
>
>   So ideally I guess there should be a post on the mailing list as well as a
> ticket in the tracker.  An approach I've seen in one (very small) project
> was that everything was supposed to be put in the tracker, and you forward
> some of the mails that the tracker generates (on rtems-bugs) to the mailing
> list.

I certainly prefer mailing lists, because postings to it get "many more 
eyes" than submissions to bugzilla.

Ralf