Information regarding the bug processing system for package maintainers and bug
triagers
Initially, a bug report is submitted by a user as an ordinary mail
message to submit@bugs.debian.org which must include a Package line
(see Bug Reporting Instructions for more information). This will then
be given a number, acknowledged to the user, and forwarded to
debian-bugs-dist. If the Package line contains a package which has a
known maintainer, the maintainer will get a copy too.
The Subject line will have Bug#nnn: added, and the Reply-To will be set
to include both the submitter of the report and nnn@bugs.debian.org.
* Closing bug reports
* Followup messages
* Severity levels
* Tags for bug reports
* Recording that you have passed on a bug report
* Changing bug ownership
* Incorrectly listed package maintainers
* Reopening, reassigning and manipulating bugs
* Subscribing to bugs
* More-or-less obsolete subject-scanning feature
* Obsolete X-Debian-PR: quiet feature
Closing bug reports
Debian bug reports should be closed when the problem is fixed. Problems
in packages can only be considered fixed once a package that includes
the bug fix enters the Debian archive.
Normally, the only people that should close a bug report are the
submitter of the bug and the maintainer(s) of the package against which
the bug is filed. There are exceptions to this rule, for example, the
bugs filed against unknown packages or certain generic pseudo-packages.
A bug can also be closed by any contributor if the bug is for an
orphaned package or if the maintainer of a package has missed closing
it. It is very important to mention the version in which the bug was
fixed. When in doubt, don't close bugs, first ask for advice on the
debian-devel mailing list.
Bug reports should be closed by sending email to
nnn-done@bugs.debian.org. The message body needs to contain an
explanation of how the bug was fixed.
With the emails received from the bug tracking system, all you need to
do to close the bug is to make a Reply in your mail reader program and
edit the To field to say nnn-done@bugs.debian.org instead of
nnn@bugs.debian.org (nnn-close is provided as an alias for nnn-done).
Where applicable, please supply a Version line in the pseudo-header of
your message when closing a bug, so that the bug tracking system knows
which releases of the package contain the fix.
The person closing the bug, the person who submitted it and the
debian-bugs-closed mailing list will each get a notification about the
change in status of the report. The submitter and the mailing list will
also receive the contents of the message sent to nnn-done.
Followup messages
The bug tracking system will include the submitter's address and the
bug address (nnn@bugs.debian.org) in the Reply-To header after
forwarding the bug report. Please note that these are two distinct
addresses.
Any developer wishing to reply to a bug report should simply reply to
the message, respecting the Reply-To header. This will not close the
bug.
Do not use the "reply to all recipients" or "followup" feature of your
mailer unless you intend to edit down the recipients substantially. In
particular, see that you don't send followup messages to
submit@bugs.debian.org.
Messages can be sent to the following addresses in order to be filed in
the bug tracking system:
* nnn@bugs.debian.org — such messages are also sent to the package
maintainer and forwarded to debian-bugs-dist, but not to the
submitter;
* nnn-submitter@bugs.debian.org — these are also sent to the
submitter and forwarded to debian-bugs-dist, but not to the package
maintainer;
* nnn-maintonly@bugs.debian.org — these are only sent to the package
maintainer, not to the submitter or debian-bugs-dist;
* nnn-quiet@bugs.debian.org — these are only filed in the bug
tracking system (as are all the above), not sent to anyone else.
For more information about headers to suppress ACK messages and how to
send carbon copies using the Bug Tracking System, see the instructions
for reporting bugs.
Severity levels
The bug system records a severity level with each bug report. This is
set to normal by default, but can be overridden either by supplying a
Severity line in the pseudo-header when the bug is submitted (see the
instructions for reporting bugs), or by using the severity command with
the control request server.
The severity levels are:
critical
makes unrelated software on the system (or the whole system)
break, or causes serious data loss, or introduces a security
hole on systems where you install the package.
grave
makes the package in question unusable or mostly so, or causes
data loss, or introduces a security hole allowing access to the
accounts of users who use the package.
serious
is a severe violation of Debian policy (roughly, it violates a
"must" or "required" directive), or, in the package maintainer's
or release manager's opinion, makes the package unsuitable for
release.
important
a bug which has a major effect on the usability of a package,
without rendering it completely unusable to everyone.
normal
the default value, applicable to most bugs.
minor
a problem which doesn't affect the package's usefulness, and is
presumably trivial to fix.
wishlist
for any feature request, and also for any bugs that are very
difficult to fix due to major design considerations.
Certain severities are considered release-critical, meaning the bug
will have an impact on releasing the package with the stable release of
Debian. Currently, these are critical, grave and serious. For complete
and canonical rules on what issues merit these severities, see the list
of release-critical issues for the next release.
Tags for bug reports
Each bug can have zero or more of a set of given tags. These tags are
displayed in the list of bugs when you look at a package's page, and
when you look at the full bug log.
Tags can be set by supplying a Tags line in the pseudo-header when the
bug is submitted (see the instructions for reporting bugs), or by using
the tags command with the control request server. Separate multiple
tags with commas, spaces, or both.
The current bug tags are: patch, wontfix, moreinfo, unreproducible,
help, security, upstream, pending, confirmed, ipv6, lfs, d-i, l10n,
newcomer, a11y, ftbfs, fixed-upstream, fixed, fixed-in-experimental, ,
. Here is some detailed info about the tags:
patch
A patch or some other easy procedure for fixing the bug is
included in the bug logs. If there's a patch, but it doesn't
resolve the bug adequately or causes some other problems, this
tag should not be used.
wontfix
This bug won't be fixed. Possibly because this is a choice
between two arbitrary ways of doing things and the maintainer
and submitter prefer different ways of doing things, possibly
because changing the behaviour will cause other, worse, problems
for others, or possibly for other reasons.
moreinfo
This bug can't be addressed until more information is provided
by the submitter. The bug will be closed if the submitter
doesn't provide more information in a reasonable (few months)
timeframe. This is for bugs like "It doesn't work". What doesn't
work?
unreproducible
This bug can't be reproduced on the maintainer's system.
Assistance from third parties is needed in diagnosing the cause
of the problem.
help
The maintainer is requesting help with dealing with this bug.
Either the maintainer does not have the skills necessary to fix
this bug and desires collaboration, or is overloaded and wants
to delegate this task. This bug might not be suitable for new
contributors unless it is also tagged with the newcomer tag.
newcomer
This bug has a known solution but the maintainer requests
someone else implement it. This is an ideal task for new
contributors who wish to get involved in Debian, or who wish to
improve their skills.
pending
A solution to this bug has been found and an upload will be made
soon.
fixed
This bug is fixed or worked around (by a non-maintainer upload,
for example), but there's still an issue that needs to be
resolved. This tag replaces the old "fixed" severity.
security
This bug describes a security problem in a package (e.g., bad
permissions allowing access to data that shouldn't be
accessible; buffer overruns allowing people to control a system
in ways they shouldn't be able to; denial of service attacks
that should be fixed, etc). Most security bugs should also be
set at critical or grave severity.
upstream
This bug applies to the upstream part of the package.
confirmed
The maintainer has looked at, understands, and basically agrees
with the bug, but has yet to fix it. (Use of this tag is
optional; it is intended mostly for maintainers who need to
manage large numbers of open bugs.)
fixed-upstream
The bug has been fixed by the upstream maintainer, but not yet
in the package (for whatever reason: perhaps it is too
complicated to backport the change or too minor to be worth
bothering).
fixed-in-experimental
The bug has been fixed in the package of the experimental
distribution, but not yet in the unstable distribution.
d-i
This bug is relevant to the development of debian-installer. It
is expected that this will be used when the bug affects
installer development but is not filed against a package that
forms a direct part of the installer itself.
ipv6
This bug affects support for Internet Protocol version 6.
lfs
This bug affects support for large files (over 2 gigabytes).
l10n
This bug is relevant to the localisation of the package.
a11y
This bug affects accessibility for users with disabilities. It
particularly impacts usability by people who rely on assistive
(or other adaptive) technology to use the system/package.
ftbfs
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 serious (release critical) in such
cases.
These are release tags, which have two effects. When set on a
bug, the bug can only affect the particular release (though it
may also affect other releases if other release tags are set)
but otherwise normal buggy/fixed/absent rules apply. The bug
also should not be archived until it is fixed in the release.
This release-critical bug is to be ignored for the purposes of
releasing the particular release. These tags should only be used
by the release manager(s); do not set it yourself without
explicit authorization from them.
Some info on distribution-specific tags: the -ignore tags ignore the
bug for the purposes of testing propagation. The release tags indicate
that the bug in question should not be archived until it is fixed in
the set of releases specified. The release tags also indicate that a
bug should only be considered buggy in the set of releases specified.
[In other words, the bug is absent in any release whose corresponding
release tag is not set if any release tags are set; otherwise the
normal found/fixed rules apply.]
Release tags should not be used if proper versioning of the bug would
achieve the desired effect, as they require manual addition and
removal. If you are unsure if a release tag is required, contact the
Debian BTS Administrators () or the release team for advice.
Recording that you have passed on a bug report
When a developer forwards a bug report to the developer of the upstream
source package from which the Debian package is derived, they should
note this in the bug tracking system as follows:
Make sure that the To field of your message to the author has only the
author(s) address(es) in it; put the person who reported the bug,
nnn-forwarded@bugs.debian.org and nnn@bugs.debian.org in the CC field.
Ask the author to preserve the CC to nnn-forwarded@bugs.debian.org when
they reply, so that the bug tracking system will file their reply with
the original report. These messages are only filed and are not sent on;
to send a message as normal, send them to nnn@bugs.debian.org as well.
When the bug tracking system gets a message at nnn-forwarded it will
mark the relevant bug as having been forwarded to the address(es) in
the To field of the message it gets, if the bug is not already marked
as forwarded.
You can also manipulate the "forwarded to" information by sending
messages to control@bugs.debian.org.
Changing bug ownership
In cases where the person responsible for fixing a bug is not the
assigned maintainer for the associated package (for example, when the
package is maintained by a team), it may be useful to record this fact
in the bug tracking system. To help with this, each bug may optionally
have an owner.
The owner can be set by supplying an Owner line in the pseudo-header
when the bug is submitted (see the instructions for reporting bugs), or
by using the owner and noowner commands with the control request
server.
Incorrectly listed package maintainers
If the maintainer of a package is listed incorrectly, this is usually
because the maintainer has changed recently, and the new maintainer
hasn't yet uploaded a new version of the package with a changed
Maintainer control file field. This will be fixed when the package is
uploaded; alternatively, the archive maintainers can override the
maintainer record of a package manually, for example if a rebuild and
reupload of the package is not expected to be needed soon. Contact
override-change@debian.org for changes to the override file.
Reopening, reassigning and manipulating bugs
It is possible to reassign bug reports to other packages, to reopen
erroneously-closed ones, to modify the information saying to where, if
anywhere, a bug report has been forwarded, to change the severities and
titles of reports, to set the ownership of bugs, to merge and unmerge
bug reports, and to record the versions of packages in which bugs were
found and in which they were fixed. This is done by sending mail to
control@bugs.debian.org.
The format of these messages is described in another document available
on the World Wide Web or in the file bug-maint-mailcontrol.txt. A plain
text version can also be obtained by mailing the word help to the
server at the address above.
Subscribing to bugs
The bug tracking system also allows bug submitters, developers and
other interested third parties to subscribe to individual bugs. This
feature can be used by those wishing to keep an eye on a bug, without
having to subscribe to a package through the Debian Package Tracker.
All messages that are received at nnn@bugs.debian.org, are sent to
subscribers.
Subscribing to a bug can be done by sending an email to
nnn-subscribe@bugs.debian.org. The subject and body of the email are
ignored by the BTS. Once this message is processed, users are sent a
confirmation message that they will need to reply to before they are
sent the messages relating to that bug.
It is also possible to unsubscribe from a bug. Unsubscribing can be
done by sending an email to nnn-unsubscribe@bugs.debian.org. The
subject and body of the email are again ignored by the BTS. Users will
be sent a confirmation message which they must reply to if they wish to
be unsubscribed from the bug.
By default, the address subscribed is the one found in the From header.
If you wish to subscribe another address to a bug, you will need to
encode the address to be subscribed into the subscription message. This
takes the form of: nnn-subscribe-localpart=example.com@bugs.debian.org.
That example would send localpart@example.com a subscription message
for bug nnn. The @ sign must be encoded by changing it to an = sign.
Similarly, an unsubscription takes the form
nnn-unsubscribe-localpart=example.com@bugs.debian.org. In both cases,
the subject and body of the email will be forwarded to the email
address within the request for confirmation.
More-or-less obsolete subject-scanning feature
Messages that arrive at submit or bugs whose Subject starts Bug#nnn
will be treated as having been sent to nnn@bugs.debian.org. This is
both for backwards compatibility with mail forwarded from the old
addresses, and to catch followup mail sent to submit by mistake (for
example, by using reply to all recipients).
A similar scheme operates for maintonly, done, quiet and forwarded,
which treat mail arriving with a Subject tag as having been sent to the
corresponding nnn-whatever@bugs.debian.org address.
Messages arriving at plain forwarded and done — ie, with no bug report
number in the address — and without a bug number in the Subject will be
filed under "junk" and kept for a few weeks, but otherwise ignored.
Obsolete X-Debian-PR: quiet feature
It used to be possible to prevent the bug tracking system from
forwarding anywhere messages it received at debian-bugs, by putting an
X-Debian-PR: quiet line in the actual mail header.
This header line is now ignored. Instead, send your message to quiet or
nnn-quiet (or maintonly or nnn-maintonly).
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