Re: FreeBSD bugzilla, bureaucracy and obstacles (was: Can someone please post a concise list of things maintainers are supposed to do?)

On Tue, Jul 18, 2023 at 8:18 AM Graham Perrin <grahamperrin@freebsd.org>
wrote:

> On 17/07/2023 08:04, Stefan Bethke wrote:
> > … conflicting instructions … bureaucratic …
>
> I pay relatively little attention to ports tree-related bug reports.
> This is not wilful ignorance; it's mostly because the doc tree is/was a
> focus. BRs that catch my eye, that I speed-read without changing the
> status to open, include those that might have a non-obvious CVE/security
> aspect.
>
> A bigger picture – not limited to ports – might help other readers to
> put things in perspective. <https://wiki.freebsd.org/Bugzilla> has ten
> public sub-pages (the array at the foot of the page), plus at least two
> private sub-pages to which I neither have, nor require, access.
>
> Given what's in the wiki – with or without interleaving of related
> content in the official FreeBSD Documentation Portal and elsewhere –
> it's simply impossible to adhere to everything that's suggested or
> required.
>
> Impossible partly because there's conflicting guidance.
>
> So, in many cases: common sense and brevity apply.
>

When conflicting instructions are present, then we should fix the
documentation.
In those cases, the OP can go with either option.
The developer/triager can fix the PR later.

Now I'm very curious about the "common sense" thing.
Would you say that requesting maintainers-feedback when reporting an issue
with a port is common sense? I would say so.
Just go to the port and copy-paste the email address and you are done, yet
many people don't even do that.


>
> For me, the greatest obstacles to progress are:
>
> a) absences of FreshPorts URLs –
> <https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=266880> would be a
> start, but not as streamlined as I'd like
>

In all honesty, I read
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=266880 and I have
absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
Is this the kind of brevity you are encouraging users to apply?


>
> b) the largely broken/meaningless dashboard – far less easy to fix.
>
> Back to Stefan's cases: amongst the resources that may be most relevant
> is <https://wiki.freebsd.org/Bugzilla/ThePerfectPortsIssue>.
>
> HTH
>
>