open bug timeout

Message

TheCoop · Post by **TheCoop** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 6:26 pm

I've a suggestion for reducing the number of open bugs on the gentoo bugzilla, that will help filter out real open-pending bugs to those that don't apply any more (which can only be a good thing) - have an activity timeout on open bugs, that after (say) 6 months of no activity the bug is automatically closed with a cause of TIMEOUT (or whatever) - this would send an email to the reporter and any CC telling them that they still havent 'officially' resolved this bug they opened. If its still an issue, they can always reopen it, which would send some emails round and hopefully get some activity going to get it fixed. Of course, if it is just a dead bug that does not apply anymore then it can simply be left and wont bother anyone anymore.

thoughts?

amne · Post by **amne** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 6:32 pm

There's a related feature called "whining", which periodically sends out reminders that the bug is still open. However it needs to be activated for every individual bug (afaik).

TheCoop · Post by **TheCoop** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 6:36 pm

well, why not just activate it automatically and set it to a very large timeout (6 months?). Automatically removing stuff from OPEN would certainly help slim down the number of open bugs in bugzilla, and help sorting out actual bugs...

Conan · Post by **Conan** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 8:04 pm

It's a per-user setting.

antarus · Post by **antarus** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 8:05 pm

TheCoop wrote:well, why not just activate it automatically and set it to a very large timeout (6 months?). Automatically removing stuff from OPEN would certainly help slim down the number of open bugs in bugzilla, and help sorting out actual bugs...

Because the fact that we have a lot of open bugs isn't viewed as a problem by most people. So I don't see why we need to 'solve' it.

-Alec

Archangel1 · Post by **Archangel1** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 12:43 am

Um, having a bug tracker set up so that if you ignore bugs for long enough they go away is possibly not the best idea if you want them solved...?

mikegpitt · Post by **mikegpitt** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 5:23 am

I think the goal isn't so much closing bugs but solving bugs. It is likely true that there are a lot of old bugs that are open but have been solved, but really... this doesn't hurt anything. This isn't like a police dept that needs to close cases or something.

steveL · Post by **steveL** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 6:04 am

mikegpitt wrote:I think the goal isn't so much closing bugs but solving bugs. It is likely true that there are a lot of old bugs that are open but have been solved, but really... this doesn't hurt anything. This isn't like a police dept that needs to close cases or something.

I'd imagine bugs that are solved are quickly marked as such. I have seen bugs that haven't been solved after two years, but they are still valid. You're right, it doesn't hurt, but the general issue of more QA automation is geekily interesting.

vibrokatana · Post by **vibrokatana** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 1:38 pm

I vote that the plbe bot handle bug reports and post them in OTW, imagine the beauty, a bug is posted and people can discuss and comment on it! To prevent spamming we could implement a rating system, where unworthy bugs could be voted out and be left alone in their dark, crash ridden world.

chrismcdirty · Post by **chrismcdirty** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 3:53 pm

It'd probably work just as well as the OTW Sunday Solution Series did. When was the last time we had that?

steveL · Post by **steveL** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 8:51 pm

Heh it'd be fun to have a bugwatch forum; you could set it so that it'd wait 24 hours (or whatever) so that dupes could be spotted first, and have a process that deletes bugs from the forum if no one's voted for them in say 2 weeks. That way people could also post fixes.

I guess you'd have to set that up on an unofficial site tho, and I ain't getting a v-server for it ;)