Re: Proposed module, releasedate

[James Youngman]

On Jan 10, 2008 1:06 AM, Bruno Haible <address@hidden> wrote:
> James Youngman wrote:
> > Lots of packages get bug reports for releases that are pretty old.

> >   /* emit the standard version information first. */
> >
> >   if (release_age (&age))
> >     {
> >       double weeks = age / (86400.0 * 7);
> >       printf(_("This release is %.0f weeks old."),
> >            weeks);
> >       if (weeks > 26.0)
> >       {
> >         printf(_("  If you are considering reporting a bug,\n"
> >                  "please upgrade to the most recent release first.\n"));
> >       }
>
> You are assuming that you will be able to make a release at least
> every 6 months?

Yes.    But that code is in the example, not the module.

> If not, you will be asking users to look for a newer
> release, and then none exists - they will be frustrated for having wasted
> their time.
>
> Also, remember that most users use a distribution: Ubuntu, Debian, OpenSUSE,
> Fedora, whatever. From the moment you make a release, to the moment your
> release is picked up by the distribution, to the moment the distribution
> is released, often more than 6 months have passed.

Don't forget that the code you are commenting about is not itself part
of the module.

> So most of your users
> will have this warning already from the first day they get a new release.

Yes.   Many people reporting bugs in packages would indeed find that
the bug is fixed in the upstream release.  If a is bug present in the
distribution's packaged release but has been fixed upstream, the bug
should be reported to the distribution, not the upstream.


> Last not least, when someone wants to report a bug, there are more things
> he should take care of. I particularly encourage people to post complete
> version information and complete samples. This should best be documented
> in the manual - see e.g. the "Reporting Bugs" node in the GCC documentation.
> This doc certainly won't fit into the few lines of --version or --help
> output.

This is true.    This is a proposed gnulib module, it should be no
surprise that it is not a substitute for adequate package
documentation.

> And finally, the GNU standards say that the email address that should be
> used for reporting bugs is part of the --help output; so it is unrelated
> to the --version output.

The module itself of course has no bearing on the GNU standards
compliance of a package that uses it, though.

James.