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< BugZappers
Revision as of 16:23, 11 March 2009 by Adamwill (talk | contribs) ("being familiarity" is not particularly grammatickal, chris :D)

What is Involved in Bug Triaging?

Bug triagers make sure that:

  • Bug reports have the information developers need to reproduce and fix them.
  • Bugs are assigned to the right component and version.
  • Duplicate bugs are found and labelled.
  • Feature requests reported as bugs are properly reported.
  • Bugs already fixed are closed.

Triaging bugs does not mean that you have to understand bugs and solve them yourself. It means you should be able to look at new bugs, and report if they are duplicates, if more information is needed, or if it is filed under the wrong component.

There is no requirement of programming knowledge. However, being familiar with Fedora and Linux in general will be extremely useful.

This is purely voluntary. We do not expect you to spend hours here every day. (Though if you want to, you're more than welcome!) You can triage bugs whenever you have free time. You can spend as little as 15 minutes a week - every little bit helps!

Why Triage Bugs?

  • The less time package maintainers have to spend resolving duplicates, attempting to reproduce bugs, and requesting missing information, the more time they can spend fixing bugs.
  • Helps to identify bugs that should be fixed before release (adding to tracker and blocker lists)
  • Gives bug reporters the feeling that someone has acknowledged their problem
  • Strives to provide a level of certainty that the total number of open bugs is accurate
  • Closing bugs for EOL releases helps keep Bugzilla tidy and useful, and lets reporters know they need to upgrade
  • Identifying workarounds can help users in the meantime until a bug is fixed
  • Provides an idea of where problem areas are in the distribution
  • Good way to learn more about Fedora

How to Sign Up

  1. Obtain a bugzilla account in Red Hat's Bugzilla
  2. Obtain a Fedora Account
    • It is necessary that the e-mail address used for your Bugzilla and Fedora accounts are the same
  3. Fedora encourages you to sign the Contributor License Agreement (giving the project permission to use and keep contributions you make in the course of triaging), but it is not required. Here's how!
  4. After successfully obtaining a Fedora account, view the fedorabugs group and apply to the group by clicking the Apply! button. Your membership will need to be approved, so this process is not instantaneous. It may take several days (unfortunately) for your membership to be approved, so please be patient. After your approval, you will have additional permissions in the system which will allow you to triage bugs.
  5. If you can commit to being a regular triager for the current release cycle, add your name to the Active Triagers page.
    • This is a simple reference so that package maintainers know who the triagers are
    • It also gives us a rough idea who is triaging bugs in which components

Communication

  1. Join the fedora-test-list
  2. Valuable communication and real time help happen in the chat channels on IRC. See IRCSetup and IRCHowTo for more information on using IRC
    • The main IRC channels to join are: #fedora-bugzappers - where team members discuss things - and #fedorabot - where you will see automated messages when new bugs are filed (among other things)
    • Once you are all setup and ready to go drop by and say hello on #fedora-bugzappers
    • #fedora-bugzappers is also a good place to get help if you are having problems with the sign-up process
  3. Attend a Bug Triage Meeting. Details on the time and location of meetings are on that page.

How to Start Triaging

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