Bugs with patches attached

[James Westby]

Hi all,

There is currently a discussion in #debian-devel that
would benefit from some input from triagers.

Part of the discussion is about making best use of the
patches that are attached to some bugs by people
that are not involved in Ubuntu development enough
to know how to take them further.

There is a worry that firstly there are plenty of patches
sitting in launchpad that just aren't getting seen by
the right people. The further concern is that when
they are seen we ask too much of the submitters and
so drive people away from contributing.

I would firstly like some input from people who deal
with bugs. 

Do you see many patches attached to bug reports?

When they are are they looked at by a developer?

If they are does there seem to be too much asked of
the submitter, like needless changes the developer
could quite easily do themselves?

Do you know how to deal with a bug that has a patch
attached?

We have a problem if the answer to the first question is
yes, and the second no. If that is indeed the case we
need to do something about it. If the last answer is no
then we can do something about that as well.

I have added myself to the contacts page as a contact
for bugs with patches attached. Therefore if you see a bug
get a patch attached, and it's not clear whether it's being
watched by a developer then please contact me and point
me to the bug. I will then try and see if I can hook the
bug up with a developer to get the patch looked at.

I'm also happy to just give pointers to other people if
you want to asses a patch for yourself and get it looked
at.

I have no idea how much work this will be, so if it gets too
much we'll have to come up with something else.

Much in the same vein as this, does anyone know a way to
receive notifications whenever a patch is added to a bug
(defined by the checkbox that they can select as they
submit it)?

Thanks,

James