GNU bug report logs - #78431
Unclear patch submission address

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ville Skyttä <ville.skytta <at> iki.fi>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Unclear patch submission address
Date: Wed, 14 May 2025 22:40:14 +0300

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

The HACKING and README-hacking files contain advice to send patches to the
email address in the respective program's --help output.

However, --help output might not contain any email addresses, such as for
example in the coreutils that ships with Ubuntu 25.04. Looks as if both
PACKAGE_PACKAGER and PACKAGE_PACKAGER_BUG_REPORTS need to be set in order
to have at least one address there.

Maybe some rephrasing of the hacking docs or adding fallback info there in
case of no other email address source would be in order.

Ville

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #8 received at 78431 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Collin Funk <collin.funk1 <at> gmail.com>
To: Ville Skyttä <ville.skytta <at> iki.fi>
Cc: 78431 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#78431: Unclear patch submission address
Date: Wed, 14 May 2025 12:53:42 -0700

Ville Skyttä <ville.skytta <at> iki.fi> writes:

> The HACKING and README-hacking files contain advice to send patches to the
> email address in the respective program's --help output.
>
> However, --help output might not contain any email addresses, such as for
> example in the coreutils that ships with Ubuntu 25.04. Looks as if both
> PACKAGE_PACKAGER and PACKAGE_PACKAGER_BUG_REPORTS need to be set in order
> to have at least one address there.
>
> Maybe some rephrasing of the hacking docs or adding fallback info there in
> case of no other email address source would be in order.

I think that adding an email regardless would be good seeing that Ubuntu
wants to change their coreutils commands to uutils eventually [1]. I
feel like that change will cause some confusion on where to report
bugs...

Plus the GNU coding standards say there should be an email [2]. On my
Fedora 42 machine:

    $ automake --help | grep @
    Report bugs to <bug-automake <at> gnu.org>.
    $ ln --help | grep @

Maybe I am missing some history behind why the bug report email is not
included though.

Collin

[1] https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/carefully-but-purposefully-oxidising-ubuntu/56995
[2] https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#g_t_002d_002dhelp

Message #11 received at 78431 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Collin Funk <collin.funk1 <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 78431 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Ville Skyttä <ville.skytta <at> iki.fi>
Subject: Re: bug#78431: Unclear patch submission address
Date: Wed, 14 May 2025 13:40:54 -0700

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 2025-05-14 12:53, Collin Funk wrote:
> I think that adding an email regardless would be good

Yes, now's a good time to revisit the decision in 2013 to remove the 
bug-reporting email address[1]. Plus, the current code is confusing.

How about the attached coreutils patch? It simplifies the code and goes 
back to the old way of doing things, which includes outputting the bug 
reporting address.

If this doesn't generate the output we want, surely we should change 
Gnulib's emit_bug_reporting_address rather than try to reinvent it.

[1]: 
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git/commit/?id=8b6d3c5700526f962b12cd5901b55961c5e18186

[0001-maint-help-now-outputs-bug-reporting-address.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

Message #14 received at 78431 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Collin Funk <collin.funk1 <at> gmail.com>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 78431 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Ville Skyttä <ville.skytta <at> iki.fi>,
 P <at> draigBrady.com
Subject: Re: bug#78431: Unclear patch submission address
Date: Wed, 14 May 2025 16:22:17 -0700

Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> writes:

> Yes, now's a good time to revisit the decision in 2013 to remove the
> bug-reporting email address[1]. Plus, the current code is confusing.
>
> How about the attached coreutils patch? It simplifies the code and
> goes back to the old way of doing things, which includes outputting
> the bug reporting address.
>
> If this doesn't generate the output we want, surely we should change
> Gnulib's emit_bug_reporting_address rather than try to reinvent it.

I think the change is good, but lets wait for Pádraig's thoughts since
he disliked this many lines in --help, which resulted in the current
output [1].

Collin

[1] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/coreutils/2013-02/msg00156.html

Message #17 received at 78431 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>, Collin Funk <collin.funk1 <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 78431 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Ville Skyttä <ville.skytta <at> iki.fi>
Subject: Re: bug#78431: Unclear patch submission address
Date: Thu, 15 May 2025 11:38:15 +0100

On 14/05/2025 21:40, Paul Eggert wrote:
> On 2025-05-14 12:53, Collin Funk wrote:
>> I think that adding an email regardless would be good
> 
> Yes, now's a good time to revisit the decision in 2013 to remove the
> bug-reporting email address[1]. Plus, the current code is confusing.
> 
> How about the attached coreutils patch? It simplifies the code and goes
> back to the old way of doing things, which includes outputting the bug
> reporting address.
> 
> If this doesn't generate the output we want, surely we should change
> Gnulib's emit_bug_reporting_address rather than try to reinvent it.
> 
> [1]:
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git/commit/?id=8b6d3c5700526f962b12cd5901b55961c5e18186

Thanks for discussing this on list.
The main reason for the current instructions
was to avoid non bug reports on the bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org list,
but I haven't strong opinions on this,
so am happy to go with the proposed patch.

cheers,
Pádraig

Message #22 received at 78431-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigBrady.com>,
 Collin Funk <collin.funk1 <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 78431-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 Ville Skyttä <ville.skytta <at> iki.fi>
Subject: Re: bug#78431: Unclear patch submission address
Date: Thu, 15 May 2025 09:01:10 -0700

On 2025-05-15 03:38, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> I haven't strong opinions on this,
> so am happy to go with the proposed patch.

Thanks, I applied it and am closing the bug report.

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