PPA support policy

[Scott Kitterman]

On Sun, 5 Jul 2009 20:20:00 +0200 Harald Sitter <apachelogger at ubuntu.com> 
wrote:
>Hullos,
>
>As of recently we get quite some reports using KDE pre-4.3 on jaunty
>from PPA. Of which some appear to cause a lot of investigation work.
>
>Some bugs can cause a triage overhead with the result that the issue
>was caused by a bug fixed 3 days later in SVN... So I'd very much like
>to have a policy on what kind of support we provide for PPA
>installations
>
>IMHO: installation-support-only unless
>package-targeting-backports-causes-regression
>
>Because: Until KDE reached .0 it is a fast moving code base and issues
>should be perused upstream, since we mostly provided the packages to
>help upstream aggregate testing anyway. Once it reached .0 we usually
>consider getting the packages into -backports, so we should try to
>minimize regressions and in general ensure it is not making your
>system explode. Still, unless an issues is proven to not affect latest
>stable (e.g. stock jaunty, which would make it a regression) it is of
>no particular interest to us.
>
>The package-targeting-backports-causes-regression policy would of
>course affect stuff like "my KDE ain't starting anymore"... that is
>obviously a regression ;-)
>
>The ultimate triage answer to reports failing policy #1:
>"Please report upstream"
>
>The ultimate triage question to reports failing policy #2:
>"Did this also appear before upgrading to KDE 4.3.0?"
>if no => regression => pursue issue
>
>Issues reported about the development series are always to be pursued.
>
>Establishing such policies will most likely cause bad reactions,
>unless we get standard answers that explain very well why there is
>need for those policies, and of course how to make the report valid by
>reproducing it on stable or development. So, do you think it is worth
>the risk and do you think those policies make sense?
>
I do.

I think we need a place for people to file packaging bugs for the PPAs.  
Some of these will be backport specific, but some will need to be fixed in 
the development release.  These bugs should not go in Launchpad against 
regular Ubuntu packages.

Scott K