Fix for "python-mysqldb" bug

[Robie Basak]

Hi Chris,

On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 03:20:21PM -0330, Chris Ringrose wrote:
> Hi there:
> 
> We've discovered a bug in the following package, and devised a fix:
> 
> 	Package: python-mysqldb
> 	Architecture: amd64
> 	Version: 1.3.4-2
> 	Filename: pool/main/p/python-mysqldb/python-mysqldb_1.3.4-2_amd64.deb
> 
> The bug is serious, as it kills execution when configuring “openchangeserver”, which is also part of Ubuntu’s official apt-get repository. As it stands right now, this cannot be configured.
> 
> Our fix is only a few lines. How do I go about submitting my code fix for approval?

Thank you for volunteering a fix!

The steps are quite long because we prefer to fix bugs in a way that
fixes it for the entire ecosystem at once, rather than just for one
particular Ubuntu release. If you need any help, or just have time to do
a little bit, that would still be helpful to everyone and we appreciate
whatever you are able to do.

1. Make sure there is a bug filed that is tracking this issue in Ubuntu.
Although direct uploaders often skip this step, for everyone else it's
easier to have a single public point of reference that uploaders can
review. Check if
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python-mysqldb lists the bug
already, and if not, then file the bug at
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/python-mysqldb/+filebug

Before you file, though, it might be helpful to gather the information
gathered in later steps for your report. Or just comment in the bug
later (up to you).

2. I see that 1.3.4-2 shipped in Wily (15.10) only, which is a stable
release. Presumably you want this bug fixed in Wily, but first we need
to understand if the bug is already fixed in the latest upstream version
of python-mysqldb. Otherwise we might fix the bug in Wily but it will
regress for users who upgrade to a later release, which would be
unhelpful for other users. It's also better for the entire ecosystem to
fix the bug at its source.

From "apt-cache show python-mysqldb", I see that Homepage is listed at
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/mysqlclient, so the version from here is
the version to check.

3. If the bug isn't fixed at pypi, then I see from that page that the
right place to go to is https://github.com/PyMySQL/mysqlclient-python.
From there you will need to check whether the bug is already fixed in
the current git master or not. If it is not, then the process there will
presumably (being GitHub) be a pull request, and that should lead to a
commit approved by the upstream author. If it is already fixed, then
that's a source of the canonical bug fix from the author since that is
the version that we want to cherry-pick into Ubuntu.

That completes the background research needed around the issue. Next is
to land the fix into Ubuntu:

4. File a debdiff for the development release of Ubuntu, that
cherry-picks this bug if applicable. This would be attached to the bug.

5. Review https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates and follow the
procedure listed there to submit a debdiff to fix the bug in Wily (a
stable release).

If you need any help, feel free to ask here, or in #ubuntu-devel on IRC
(Freenode).

Robie
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