[Reportbug-maint] Bug#285924: merged bugs are not shown

Thomas Arendsen Hein thomas at intevation.de
Sun Feb 7 14:53:27 UTC 2010


Package: reportbug
Version: 4.10.2
Severity: normal

I just stumbled across this usability problem when wanting to report a bug in
reportbug. When checking wether the bug I want to report already exists, I
noticed the following issues:

   17) #548533  reportbug: Ctrl+c doesn't exit until after pressing enter
   20) #559573  reportbug: pressing Ctrl+c will not abort at subject in console. write Ctrl+d instead.
   29) #564939  ^C interrupts should interrupt immediately
   ...
   32) #230582  reportbug: maybe -f could work on /var/lib/dpkg/info/ files too
   34) #302234  reportbug: please check binaries for locally installed libraries
   35) #305105  reportbug: -f: even look in /var/lib/dpkg/info
   ...
   36) #328531  reportbug: provide option to continue with saved report
   37) #347425  reportbug: would like --resume option for picking up from an interrupted report
   41) #497387  reportbug: would like --resume option for picking up from an interrupted report
   ...
   63) #240105  reportbug: Newer version avail should provide changelog
   64) #241552  Option to display changelog
   ...
   95) #128092  reportbug: should redisplay on WINCH signal
   96) #407531  reportbug: should detect terminal resize when listing bugs
   97) #460899  reportbug: Doesn't check for terminal resize
   ...
   98) #498919  cannot write in tags anymore
   99) #524511  cannot set tags on command line

My first thought was, oh, these should be merged (for that reason I prepared
above list), but then I remembered that those duplicates are bugs of
reportbug, and so I was sure that the maintainer knows about how to merge bug
reports. I confirmed this by checking in the web interface for one of above
bugs.

Assuming that it isn't a problem to retrieve the merge information (I do not
know and have not checked), only the problem of displaying it nicely to the
user has to be solved.

My suggestion is to use '=' or '+':

   17) #548533  reportbug: Ctrl+c doesn't exit until after pressing enter
   18) #559573 =reportbug: pressing Ctrl+c will not abort at subject in console. write Ctrl+d instead.
   19) #564939 =^C interrupts should interrupt immediately
   20) #abcdef  reportbug: a bug report which is not merged
   21) #230582  reportbug: maybe -f could work on /var/lib/dpkg/info/ files too
   22) #302234 +reportbug: please check binaries for locally installed libraries
   23) #305105 +reportbug: -f: even look in /var/lib/dpkg/info

Or something similar to threaded view with some MUAs:

   17) #548533  reportbug: Ctrl+c doesn't exit until after pressing enter
   18) #559573  |> reportbug: pressing Ctrl+c will not abort at subject in console. write Ctrl+d instead.
   19) #564939  `> ^C interrupts should interrupt immediately
   20) #abcdef  reportbug: a bug report which is not merged
   21) #230582  reportbug: maybe -f could work on /var/lib/dpkg/info/ files too
   22) #302234  |->reportbug: please check binaries for locally installed libraries
   23) #305105  `->reportbug: -f: even look in /var/lib/dpkg/info

Personally I would prefer '=' in a separate column like in the first example.

Regards,
Thomas

-- Package-specific info:
** Environment settings:
EMAIL="Thomas Arendsen Hein <thomas at jtah.de>"

** /home/thomas/.reportbugrc:
email "thomas at intevation.de"
realname "Thomas Arendsen Hein"
no-cc
header "X-Debbugs-CC: thomas at intevation.de"
smtphost reportbug.debian.org

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (550, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-trunk-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages reportbug depends on:
ii  apt                           0.7.25     Advanced front-end for dpkg
ii  python                        2.5.4-9    An interactive high-level object-o
ii  python-reportbug              4.10.2     Python modules for interacting wit

reportbug recommends no packages.

Versions of packages reportbug suggests:
pn  debconf-utils                 <none>     (no description available)
pn  debsums                       <none>     (no description available)
pn  dlocate                       <none>     (no description available)
pn  emacs22-bin-common | emacs23- <none>     (no description available)
ii  file                          5.03-5+b1  Determines file type using "magic"
ii  gnupg                         1.4.10-2   GNU privacy guard - a free PGP rep
pn  postfix | exim4 | mail-transp <none>     (no description available)
ii  python-gtk2                   2.16.0-2   Python bindings for the GTK+ widge
pn  python-gtkspell               <none>     (no description available)
ii  python-urwid                  0.9.9-2    curses-based UI/widget library for
pn  python-vte                    <none>     (no description available)
ii  xdg-utils                     1.0.2-6.1  desktop integration utilities from

-- no debconf information





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