[mono-packagers] Bugzilla Keyword: downstream

[Andrew Jorgensen]

Hello Packagers!

We had the Novell Bugzilla team add us a keyword you can add to your bug reports.  The keyword is "downstream" and the intended meaning is that the bug has a patch attached to it and that this patch is already applied downstream somewhere.  There should be a "Keywords" field on the bug report page.

We recognize that downstream patches are particularly urgent because upstreaming them saves you grief on the next release and an incorrect downstream patch could cause problems.

I will personally check the list of bugs having the "downstream" keyword at least weekly and bug people to get them reviewed (and improved if needed).  Please don't file patches that are specific to your distro, of course.  If you backport a patch from trunk then it might be prudent to file that, though, as there are sometimes problems with backports.  Patches from the proper branch are probably okay.  Use your own judgement there.

If there are specific issues you're patching for that are distro-specific (like prefix/lib vs. libdir) we can discuss those here and I will try to get us understanding eachother at least and maybe our policy or yours could change as a result.

Hope this helps,
Andrew Jorgensen