No subject

statement to make.<br>
<br>
On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 5:49 PM, Paul Beardsell &lt;<a href=3D"mailto:paul at b=
eardsell.com">paul at beardsell.com</a>&gt; wrote:<br>
<br>
[snip]<br>
<div class=3D"im">&gt;<br>
&gt; * It is beneficial to the Perl community (developers and users) that b=
ugs<br>
&gt; are held centrally. I am sure this is also the position of the Perl<br=
>
&gt; community. The discoverer of a bug cannot be responsible for contactin=
g each<br>
&gt; distro.=A0 Distro maintainers cannot independently triage *all* bugs i=
n all<br>
&gt; the packages they include.=A0 They need (we need!) &quot;upstream&quot=
;, a central<br>
&gt; repository.=A0 <a href=3D"http://rt.cpan.org" target=3D"_blank">rt.cpa=
n.org</a> has the facility to record bugs against older but<br>
&gt; still current versions.=A0 It should be used as I think Jesse Vincent =
also<br>
&gt; intended, for the benefit of the wider community, as this central<br>
&gt; repository.<br>
&gt;<br>
</div>[snip]<br>
<br>
In Debian, we like to have everything that affects our packages filed<br>
in our bug tracker (the Debian Bug Tracking System). From time to time<br>
in the past, we have missed these bugs (ie, not forwarded them<br>
upstream), and this has been problematic for people. However, our bug<br>
tracker is entirely open and anyone is free to look at our packages<br>
and forward relevant issues upstream.<br>
<br>
One particular point I&#39;d like to make is that sometimes bugs only<br>
exist downstream due to some modifications we&#39;ve made in order to<br>
package things or for some other reason. As a result, it doesn&#39;t seem<b=
r>
fair to bother the upstream maintainers about issues which are<br>
Debian-specific, or Fedora-specific, for example.<br>
<br>
Therefore, we ask that our users always file bugs against the Debian<br>
packages; we will coordinate with upstream appropriately to get things<br>
fixed, taking care to forward the bug and make whatever arrangements<br>
necessary to fix the package.<br>
<br>
In general, the CPAN Request Tracker has been where we forward most of<br>
our bug reports. Some maintainers do not like to use the RT system,<br>
and we have to respect their wishes. In that case, we file bugs by<br>
whatever means the maintainers tell us to in the POD of their<br>
packages, or otherwise in the RT or via direct mail.<br>
<br>
In defense of the SQL::Statement maintainers and all, I think if there<br>
are critical issues with older releases, they should be brought to the<br>
attention of each distro. Debian has policies for when things get<br>
synchronized between unstable &lt;-&gt; testing, and things that can be<br>
updated in stable. Things like security fixes and critical fixes are<br>
candidates for patches in stable, however this is the responsibility<br>
of Debian/Fedora/etc and not of the CPAN Maintainers.<br>
<br>
I urge you to let the CPAN maintainers do what they do best -- produce<br>
good software. Others (including those that package these modules) are<br>
responsible for distro-specific issues, and I encourage you to file<br>
bugs in those packages.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<font color=3D"#888888"><br>
Jonathan<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br>

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