Closing fixed bugs; consider the "fixed" tag

[Stefan Kangas]

Hi emacs-devel,

We tend to end up with many bugs that have been fixed, yet remain open.
I have closed several dozens of such bugs in the last month or two.

When you fix a bug, it is fine to close it immediately, even if the
change was not yet tested/reviewed.  It takes 30 days before closed bugs
are archived, which in 99.9 % of cases is more than enough for people to
send a reply.  It is also trivial to reopen bugs, where needed.

If you want to wait with closing a fixed bug, I recommend always adding
the "fixed" tag, which is documented like this:

    "This bug is fixed or worked around, but there's still an issue that
    needs to be resolved." - https://debbugs.gnu.org/Developer.html#tags

(In the case of a fixed bug, testing and/or reviewing the change would
be the "issue that needs to be resolved [before it can be closed]".)

Following the above practice will facilitate locating fixed bugs, and
closing them en masse if need be.  These simple measures will be able to
save us a lot of work, much more than I think people generally realize.

Thanks.