Re: [gentoo-dev] Local workarounds with no reported bugs

[Raymond Jennings]

My main concern in this thread, is that I don't want anything swept under
the rug in such a way that a wider issue is masked that actually needs
dealt with anyway.

Examples:
* A workaround to deal with a bug, especially one filed on b.g.o
  - What happens if/when the bug gets fixed?  Won't the workaround need
removed?
  - If the bug is serious enough, a workaround
* An upstream problem
  - Upstream might want (or need to be coaxed) into taking a fix
* Anything common to more than one package`

Routine workarounds, like stuff on gentoo that works differently from
upstream (aka build process mangling) probably doesn't count.

On Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 11:11 PM, Daniel Campbell <zlg@g.o> wrote:

> On 10/17/2016 06:09 AM, Raymond Jennings wrote:
> > My biggest ​opinion regarding workarounds and bugs, is that we're
> > sweeping things under the rug that should at least be documented, and
> > perhaps fixed...or even punted upstream if its serious enough.
> >
> > Changing the status quo may require some adjustment though, but I
> > suppose we could start by openly documenting a bug if we find a
> > workaround that does not already have a bug number associated with it.
> > I've seen several ebuilds where workarounds are applied, but the
> > workaround also has a bug number in the comment.
> I'd say this falls under the scope of QA, and QA should have some sort
> of "quick reference" guide to help developers out and cover situations
> they've come across. At the moment, the only resource I'm aware of
> (aside from the obvious devmanual and PMS) that we have is either
> e-mailing qa@g.o or using repoman. repoman can't (and shouldn't) cover
> _everything_, but it's hard to take rants like this seriously when
> little is done to communicate to devs at large to "color in the lines".
>
> I ran into something similar when writing the wrapper script for
> media-sound/apulse. It took 3 attempts and being told "you're doing it
> wrong" 2-3 times before I figured out exactly how to do it. Had it been
> documented on a wiki page or something similar, it would have saved me
> and others a considerable amount of time.
>
> We need solid QA docs. The devmanual and repoman are great starts, and
> answer a bunch of questions. When/if QA comes across new situations and
> comes up with 'blessed' solutions, we need a way to check them out
> instead of waiting for it to hit Git and be smacked with a "this is
> wrong" e-mail.
>
> Just my 2¢.
>
> ~zlg
> --
> Daniel Campbell - Gentoo Developer
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