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Developers' information regarding the bug processing system
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Initially, a bug report is submitted by a user as an ordinary mail
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message to submit@bugs.debian.org. This will then be given a number,
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acknowledged to the user, and forwarded to debian-bugs-dist. If the
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submitter included a Package line listing a package with a known
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maintainer the maintainer will get a copy too.
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The Subject line will have Bug#nnn: added, and the Reply-To will be
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set to include both the submitter of the report and
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_________________________________________________________________
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* Tags for bug reports
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* Recording that you have passed on a bug report
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* Changing bug ownership
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* Incorrectly listed package maintainers
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* Reopening, reassigning and manipulating bugs
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* More-or-less obsolete subject-scanning feature
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* Obsolete X-Debian-PR: quiet feature
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_________________________________________________________________
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Debian bug reports should be closed when the problem is fixed.
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Problems in packages can only be considered fixed once a package that
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includes the bug fix enters the Debian archive.
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Normally, the only people that should close a bug report are the
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submitter of the bug and the maintainer(s) of the package against
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which the bug is filed. There are exceptions to this rule, for
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example, the bugs filed against unknown packages or certain generic
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pseudo-packages. When in doubt, don't close bugs, first ask for advice
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on the debian-devel mailing list.
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Bug reports should be closed by sending email to
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nnn-done@bugs.debian.org. The message body needs to contain an
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explanation of how the bug was fixed.
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With the emails received from the bug tracking system, all you need to
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do to close the bug is to make a Reply in your mail reader program and
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edit the To field to say nnn-done@bugs.debian.org instead of
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nnn@bugs.debian.org (nnn-close is provided as an alias for nnn-done).
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Where applicable, please supply a Version line in the pseudo-header of
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your message when closing a bug, so that the bug tracking system knows
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which releases of the package contain the fix.
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The person closing the bug, the person who submitted it and the
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debian-bugs-closed mailing list will each get a notification about the
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change in status of the report. The submitter and the mailing list
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will also receive the contents of the message sent to nnn-done.
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The bug tracking system will include the submitter's address and the
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bug address (nnn@bugs.debian.org) in the Reply-To header after
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forwarding the bug report. Please note that these are two distinct
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If a developer wishes to reply to a bug report they should simply
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reply to the message, respecting the Reply-To header. This will not
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The bug tracking system will receive the message at
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nnn@bugs.debian.org, pass it on to the package maintainer, file the
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reply with the rest of the logs for that bug report and forward it to
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Sending a message to nnn-submitter@bugs.debian.org will explicitly
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email the submitter of the bug and place a copy in the Bug tracking
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system. The message will not be sent to package maintainer.
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If you wish to send a followup message which is not appropriate for
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debian-bugs-dist you can do so by sending it to
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nnn-quiet@bugs.debian.org or nnn-maintonly@bugs.debian.org. Mail to
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nnn-quiet@bugs.debian.org is filed in the Bug Tracking System but is
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not delivered to any individuals or mailing lists. Mail to
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nnn-maintonly@bugs.debian.org is filed in the Bug Tracking System and
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is delivered only to the maintainer of the package in question.
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Do not use the `reply to all recipients' or `followup' feature of your
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mailer unless you intend to edit down the recipients substantially. In
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particular, see that you don't send followup messages to
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submit@bugs.debian.org.
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For more information about headers to suppress ACK messages and how to
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send carbon copies using the Bug Tracking System, see the instructions
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The bug system records a severity level with each bug report. This is
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set to normal by default, but can be overridden either by supplying a
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Severity line in the pseudo-header when the bug is submitted (see the
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instructions for reporting bugs), or by using the severity command
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with the control request server.
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The severity levels are:
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makes unrelated software on the system (or the whole system)
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break, or causes serious data loss, or introduces a security
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hole on systems where you install the package.
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makes the package in question unusable or mostly so, or causes
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data loss, or introduces a security hole allowing access to the
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accounts of users who use the package.
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is a severe violation of Debian policy (roughly, it violates a
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"must" or "required" directive), or, in the package
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maintainer's opinion, makes the package unsuitable for release.
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a bug which has a major effect on the usability of a package,
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without rendering it completely unusable to everyone.
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the default value, applicable to most bugs.
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a problem which doesn't affect the package's usefulness, and is
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presumably trivial to fix.
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for any feature request, and also for any bugs that are very
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difficult to fix due to major design considerations.
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Certain severities are considered release-critical, meaning the bug
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will have an impact on releasing the package with the stable release
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of Debian. Currently, these are critical, grave and serious. For
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complete and canonical rules on what issues merit these severities,
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see the list of Release-Critical Issues for Etch.
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Each bug can have zero or more of a set of given tags. These tags are
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displayed in the list of bugs when you look at a package's page, and
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when you look at the full bug log.
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Tags can be set by supplying a Tags line in the pseudo-header when the
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bug is submitted (see the instructions for reporting bugs), or by
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using the tags command with the control request server. Separate
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multiple tags with commas, spaces, or both.
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The current bug tags are:
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A patch or some other easy procedure for fixing the bug is
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included in the bug logs. If there's a patch, but it doesn't
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resolve the bug adequately or causes some other problems, this
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tag should not be used.
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This bug won't be fixed. Possibly because this is a choice
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between two arbitrary ways of doing things and the maintainer
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and submitter prefer different ways of doing things, possibly
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because changing the behaviour will cause other, worse,
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problems for others, or possibly for other reasons.
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This bug can't be addressed until more information is provided
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by the submitter. The bug will be closed if the submitter
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doesn't provide more information in a reasonable (few months)
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timeframe. This is for bugs like "It doesn't work". What
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This bug can't be reproduced on the maintainer's system.
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Assistance from third parties is needed in diagnosing the cause
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The maintainer is requesting help with dealing with this bug.
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A solution to this bug has been found and an upload will be
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This bug is fixed or worked around (by a non-maintainer upload,
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for example), but there's still an issue that needs to be
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resolved. This tag replaces the old "fixed" severity.
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This bug describes a security problem in a package (e.g., bad
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permissions allowing access to data that shouldn't be
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accessible; buffer overruns allowing people to control a system
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in ways they shouldn't be able to; denial of service attacks
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that should be fixed, etc). Most security bugs should also be
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set at critical or grave severity.
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This bug applies to the upstream part of the package.
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The maintainer has looked at, understands, and basically agrees
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with the bug, but has yet to fix it. (Use of this tag is
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optional; it is intended mostly for maintainers who need to
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manage large numbers of open bugs.)
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The bug has been fixed by the upstream maintainer, but not yet
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in the package (for whatever reason: perhaps it is too
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complicated to backport the change or too minor to be worth
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fixed-in-experimental
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The bug has been fixed in the package of the experimental
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distribution, but not yet in the unstable distribution.
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This bug is relevant to the development of debian-installer. It
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is expected that this will be used when the bug affects
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installer development but is not filed against a package that
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forms a direct part of the installer itself.
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This bug affects support for Internet Protocol version 6.
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This bug affects support for large files (over 2 gigabytes).
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This bug is relevant to the localisation of the package.
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This bug particularly applies to the potato release of Debian.
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This bug particularly applies to the woody distribution.
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This bug should not be archived until it is fixed in sarge.
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This release-critical bug is to be ignored for the purposes of
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releasing sarge. This tag should only be used by the release
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manager; do not set it yourself without explicit authorization
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This bug should not be archived until it is fixed in etch.
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This release-critical bug is to be ignored for the purposes of
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releasing etch. This tag should only be used by the release
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manager; do not set it yourself without explicit authorization
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This bug should not be archived until it is fixed in sid.
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This bug should not be archived until it is fixed in
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The meanings of the latter 6 tags have changed recently; the ignore
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tags ignore the bug for the purpose of a testing propagation. The
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release tags, which used to indicate which bugs affected a specific
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release now indicate when a bug can be archived.
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Recording that you have passed on a bug report
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When a developer forwards a bug report to the developer of the
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upstream source package from which the Debian package is derived, they
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should note this in the bug tracking system as follows:
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Make sure that the To field of your message to the author has only the
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author(s) address(es) in it; put the person who reported the bug,
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nnn-forwarded@bugs.debian.org and nnn@bugs.debian.org in the CC field.
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Ask the author to preserve the CC to nnn-forwarded@bugs.debian.org
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when they reply, so that the bug tracking system will file their reply
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with the original report. These messages are only filed and are not
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sent on; to send a message as normal, send them to nnn@bugs.debian.org
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When the bug tracking system gets a message at nnn-forwarded it will
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mark the relevant bug as having been forwarded to the address(es) in
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the To field of the message it gets, if the bug is not already marked
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You can also manipulate the `forwarded to' information by sending
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messages to control@bugs.debian.org.
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Changing bug ownership
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In cases where the person responsible for fixing a bug is not the
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assigned maintainer for the associated package (for example, when the
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package is maintained by a team), it may be useful to record this fact
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in the bug tracking system. To help with this, each bug may optionally
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The owner can be set by supplying an Owner line in the pseudo-header
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when the bug is submitted (see the instructions for reporting bugs),
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or by using the owner and noowner commands with the control request
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Incorrectly listed package maintainers
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If the maintainer of a package is listed incorrectly, this is usually
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because the maintainer has changed recently, and the new maintainer
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hasn't yet uploaded a new version of the package with a changed
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Maintainer control file field. This will be fixed when the package is
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uploaded; alternatively, the archive maintainers can override the
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maintainer record of a package manually, for example if a rebuild and
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reupload of the package is not expected to be needed soon. Contact
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override-change@debian.org for changes to the override file.
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Reopening, reassigning and manipulating bugs
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It is possible to reassign bug reports to other packages, to reopen
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erroneously-closed ones, to modify the information saying to where, if
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anywhere, a bug report has been forwarded, to change the severities
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and titles of reports, to set the ownership of bugs, to merge and
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unmerge bug reports, and to record the versions of packages in which
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bugs were found and in which they were fixed. This is done by sending
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mail to control@bugs.debian.org.
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The format of these messages is described in another document
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available on the World Wide Web or in the file
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bug-maint-mailcontrol.txt. A plain text version can also be obtained
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by mailing the word help to the server at the address above.
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The bug tracking system also allows bug submitters, developers and
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other interested third parties to subscribe to individual bugs. This
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feature can be used by those wishing to keep an eye on a bug, without
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having to subscribe to a package through the PTS. All messages that
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are received at nnn@debian.org, are sent to subscribers.
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Subscribing to a bug can be done by sending an email to
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nnn-subscribe@bugs.debian.org. The subject and body of the email are
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ignored by the BTS. Once this message is processed, users are sent a
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confirmation message that they will need to reply to before they are
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sent the messages relating to that bug.
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It is also possible to unsubscribe from a bug. Unsubscribing can be
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done by sending an email to nnn-unsubscribe@bugs.debian.org. The
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subject and body of the email are again ignored by the BTS. Users will
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be sent a confirmation message which they must reply to if they wish
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to be unsubscribed from the bug.
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By default, the address subscribed is the one found in the From
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header. If you wish to subscribe another address to a bug, you will
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need to encode the address to be subscribed into the subscription
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message. This takes the form of:
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nnn-subscribe-localpart=example.com@bugs.debian.org. That example
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would send localpart@example.com a subscription message for bug nnn.
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The @ sign must be encoded by changing it to an = sign. Similarly, an
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unsubscription takes the form
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nnn-unsubscribe-localpart=example.com@bugs.debian.org. In both cases,
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the subject and body of the email will be forwarded to the email
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address within the request for confirmation.
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More-or-less obsolete subject-scanning feature
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Messages that arrive at submit or bugs whose Subject starts Bug#nnn
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will be treated as having been sent to nnn@bugs.debian.org. This is
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both for backwards compatibility with mail forwarded from the old
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addresses, and to catch followup mail sent to submit by mistake (for
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example, by using reply to all recipients).
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A similar scheme operates for maintonly, done, quiet and forwarded,
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which treat mail arriving with a Subject tag as having been sent to
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the corresponding nnn-whatever@bugs.debian.org address.
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Messages arriving at plain forwarded and done - ie, with no bug report
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number in the address - and without a bug number in the Subject will
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be filed under `junk' and kept for a few weeks, but otherwise ignored.
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Obsolete X-Debian-PR: quiet feature
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It used to be possible to prevent the bug tracking system from
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forwarding anywhere messages it received at debian-bugs, by putting an
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X-Debian-PR: quiet line in the actual mail header.
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This header line is now ignored. Instead, send your message to quiet
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or nnn-quiet (or maintonly or nnn-maintonly).
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_________________________________________________________________
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Debian BTS administrators <owner@bugs.debian.org>
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Debian bug tracking system
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Copyright � 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997, 2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd,
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1994-1997 Ian Jackson.
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_________________________________________________________________
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includes/sid/install/doc/bug-maint-info.txt
