Re: Filing bug reports in Debian (was Re: Debian Stole My Name!)

On Wednesday 15 October 2008, Eduardo M KALINOWSKI wrote:
Denvid Wright escreveu:
On Tuesday 14 October 2008, Douglas A. Tutty wrote:
WARNING: YOU HAVE A LOCKED AND LOADED ASSAULT RIFLE POINTED AT
YOUR FEET AND YOUR FINGER IS ON THE TRIGGER.

Interesting analogy, but it doesn't work, for several reasons.
First, it's quite possible to remove your finger from the trigger,
or to just say, "I won't pull the trigger and that solves the whole
problem." Honestly, there's a good chance that's what I did. As
I've said, this was 2 years ago and I just don't remember it that
clearly.

If you say I have a gun pointed at my feet and my finger is on the
trigger, then I can make a choice: Do I pull the trigger or not?
In this case, without warning, apt or aptitude pulls the trigger,
WITHOUT WARNING.

In my view the trigger is pulled when you edit portions of the file
that shouldn't be changed unless special precautions are taken (such
as disabling update-grub). It's true the effect is only seen later,
but the danger lies in editing the automatically changed sections,
not in running update-grub, even if it is that what causes the actual
effects to be seen.

That's a critical point: The file was overwritten without my
knowing or without so much as a warning. The warning in menu.lst
says:

## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be
modified ## by the debian update-grub script except for the default
options below

Notice it does NOT say when update-grub is run. It does NOT say,
"apt will overwrite this list when the kernel is upgraded." With
the warning given, unless someone has a technical understanding of
apt, they have no reason to anticipate it overwriting menu.lst.

The warning could be better worded, and a direct warning at the top
of the file such as
# WARNING: Be careful when editing this file.
# Some parts of it can be changed automatically.
# See <manpages and other references> for more details.

could be added. Going back to the original discussion (I think I'll
regret saying that, but I can't avoid), that would suggest a wishlist
bug.

More than that, we may be dealing with exaggerated precautions. If
warnings are given, it's the user responsibility to know what he is
doing and what he is changing in the file.

Both of your comments involve disagreements over differences of
opinion -- but I can see where you're coming from and I think the point
about rewording the warnings in menu.lst would go a long way toward
addressing the issue that led me to file the bug report.

If filing the bug report had led to that kind of discussion, I would
have felt much better about it than I did when I decided to just give
up. I can deal with a disagreement. What I found frustrating was that
it felt like the focus was only on justifying why the bug was elsewhere
and there was no need to pursue it.

Hal


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