[Reportbug-maint] Bug#347425: Also useful in cases of misconfiguration of reportbug

[Michael Mol]

Package: reportbug
Version: 4.12.6
Severity: normal


--resume would be extremely helpful in cases where one has misconfigured bugreport.

This is the second bug I'm attempting to file today. The first bug is on hold in my /tmp because I typo'd the MTA settings while configuring reportbug. (I should have just let it use Debian's SMTP server. I didn't see that option right away.)

If I choose to continue to try to file that first bug, the lack of a --resume option means:
A) I have to learn how to send an email through my GMail account's SMTP server, rather than deferring to an unknown SMTP server reportbug uses internally.
B) I'll have had to take the time to discover that the file saved in /tmp is a full email message, which it seems I can't simply import into, e.g. Evolution.
C) I've already spent most of an hour this morning looking up information on how to get reportbug to resume a bug report. Because of a typo in configuring bugreport.

I found the conversation attached to bug #551983. This is unrelated. I don't run my own MTA, at least not at home.

I tried to use bugreport instead of a web interface or direct email to a maintainer because, as a software developer myself and a ten-year user of various Linux distributions, I understand the value of contextual information in bug reports. bugreport is the *nicest* tool I've ever seen for reporting bugs, but going on an hour-long chase like this because of a typo has me seriously wishing I'd just sent an email. I do see you have a large number of outstanding bugs, and I understand that you're busy (and I empathize), so pardon me if I'm a come across as a bit acerbic.

-- Package-specific info:
** Environment settings:
INTERFACE="text"

** /home/shortcircuit/.reportbugrc:
reportbug_version "4.12.6"
mode standard
ui text
email "mikemol at gmail.com"
no-cc
header "X-Debbugs-CC: mikemol at gmail.com"
smtphost reportbug.debian.org

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages reportbug depends on:
ii  apt                           0.8.5      Advanced front-end for dpkg
ii  python                        2.6.5-13   interactive high-level object-orie
ii  python-reportbug              4.12.6     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 | <none>              (no description available)
ii  exim4                4.72-1              metapackage to ease Exim MTA (v4) 
ii  exim4-daemon-light [ 4.72-1              lightweight Exim MTA (v4) daemon
ii  file                 5.04-5              Determines file type using "magic"
ii  gnupg                1.4.10-4            GNU privacy guard - a free PGP rep
ii  python-gtk2          2.17.0-4            Python bindings for the GTK+ widge
pn  python-gtkspell      <none>              (no description available)
pn  python-urwid         <none>              (no description available)
ii  python-vte           1:0.24.3-1          Python bindings for the VTE widget
ii  xdg-utils            1.0.2+cvs20100307-2 desktop integration utilities from

-- no debconf information