[Surfraw-devel] bug hunting

Ian Beckwith ianb@nessie.mcc.ac.uk
Sun, 21 Sep 2003 05:06:33 +0100


Hi all.

I've been going through the outstanding surfraw bugs on the BTS, and
fixing what I can.

first of all, new elvi: scpan and deblists (closes #134498)

scpan is so named because there is a cpan script that comes with the
CPAN module distribution

In deblists, to do the processing of the date option right in
(portable) sh would have been a nightmare, so it's done in inline
perl. This is the first use of perl in surfraw, which isn't a problem
for debian, but is another dependency for non-debian users.

The -dates option is quite complicated, so it could use some testing.
Also, could people have a look at the help text for the -dates
option. Does it make sense? Is it too terse?

I added instructions to HACKING for adding an elvi to the
distribution. I'd be grateful if someone who knows automake and
autoconf had a look to see if it is right.

I reran aclocal, automake and autoconf.  Running aclocal stopped
automake complaining about an obsolete construct.

>Grave functionality bugs - outstanding (1 bug)
>
>     * #209155: surfraw: fails to install because of conflict with 'translate'
>       Package: surfraw; Severity: grave; Reported by: Matt Swift <swift@alum.mit.edu>; 10 days old.

This is a namespace issue, so I've skipped it for now.

>Important bugs - outstanding (1 bug)
>
>     * #173714: surfraw: only outputs elvi list
>       Package: surfraw; Severity: important; Reported by: Tobias Stefan Richter <tsr@achos.com>; 272 days
>       old.

This is not a bug and can be closed

>Normal bugs - outstanding (4 bugs)
>
>     * #163903: surfraw: Strange error
>       Package: surfraw; Reported by: Ajay Shah <ajayshah@mayin.org>;
>       344 days old.

Quoting problem in amazon, fixed.
There is stuff in the url like tag-id=undergroundpubli
Is this someone's attempt to earn referral cash?
If so, what do we do about it. Take it out? Change it to something worthy?
Leave it?

>     * #165967: surfraw: -remote openURL option syntax error
>       Package: surfraw; Reported by: Brian Nelson <bnelson@bloodclot.net>; Tags: patch; 330 days old.

fixed surfraw.in  - applied patch from Brian Nelson <bnelson@bloodclot.net>

>     * #192869: surfraw: surprized you added so many commands to /usr/bin
>       Package: surfraw; Reported by: Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org>; 130 days old.

Namespace issue, skipped.

>     * #201175: surfraw conflicts with the 'rhyme' package
>       Package: surfraw; Reported by: Brian Minton <bminton@efn.org>; 66 days old.

Namespace issue, skipped.

>Wishlist items - outstanding (1 bug)
>
>     * #155423: /etc/surfraw.conf is a shell script, why not use it?
>       Package: surfraw; Severity: wishlist; Reported by: Michal Politowski <mpol@charybda.icm.edu.pl>; 1
>       year and 45 days old.

I think sensible-browser makes this irrelevant

>Important bugs - forwarded to upstream software authors (1 bug)
>
>     * #118314: surfraw: Completely broken with respect to browser selection
>       Package: surfraw; Severity: important; Reported by: Matt Zimmerman <mdz@debian.org>; Forwarded to
>       proff@iq.org; 1 year and 317 days old.

Fixed surfraw.in (it was setting env vars unconditionally rather than using def)

>Wishlist items - forwarded to upstream software authors (5 bugs)
>
>     * #127078: surfraw: "I'm feeling lucky" option for google
>       Package: surfraw; Severity: wishlist; Reported by: Matt Zimmerman <mdz@debian.org>; Tags: patch;
>       merged with #128544; Forwarded to proff@iq.org; 1 year and 261 days old.

Fixed by my earlier patch

>     * #128544: surfraw: "I'm feeling lucky" option for google
>       Package: surfraw; Severity: wishlist; Reported by: Ajay Shah <ajayshah@mayin.org>; Tags: patch; merged
>       with #127078; Forwarded to proff@iq.org; 1 year and 251 days old.

Ditto, fixed by my earlier patch

>     * #134498: surfraw: component for searching Debian mailing lists
>       Package: surfraw; Severity: wishlist; Reported by: Matt Zimmerman <mdz@debian.org>; Forwarded to
>       134498-forwarded@bugs.debian.org; 1 year and 212 days old.

Fixed by deblists

>     * #144080: surfraw: improvements to debpackages (patch included) 
>       Package: surfraw; Severity: wishlist; Reported by: eichin@thok.org (Mark W. Eichin); Forwarded to
>       proff-surfraw@iq.org; 1 year and 149 days old.

Adds functionality already present in debcontents elvi

>     * #149600: surfraw: Search for Message-ID on Google Groups (patch)
>       Package: surfraw; Severity: wishlist; Reported by: "Christian Garbs [Master Mitch]"
>       <mitch@yggdrasil.mitch.h.shuttle.de>; Tags: patch; Forwarded to proff-surfraw@iq.org; 1 year and 99
>       days old.

Added patch to deja from "Christian Garbs [Master Mitch]" <mitch@yggdrasil.mitch.h.shuttle.de>
He also suggests renaming it, as dejanews was long ago absorbed into google.
What do people think? Rename it to googlegroups?

So, when this all makes it into unstable, we can close:

#118314
#134498
#149600
#163903
#165967

and, in my opinion, we can now close:

#127078
#128544
#144080
#155423
#173714


Ian.