RFR: Addition of a causes link type [v7]

[Alexey Ivanov]

On Wed, 22 Jan 2025 14:39:50 GMT, Magnus Ihse Bursie <ihse at openjdk.org> wrote:

> > When backporting, B and C can be skipped, therefore a ‘causes’ link from A to D makes sense to me.
> 
> But that only makes sense once D is created. When creating B, the author genuinely believes that it fixes A. It is just that later on, B was found to be broken. Should we at that point go and remove the `causes` link for A?

I don't think we should. The relationship between A and B remains even after C is created, and after it's integrated, too.

Additional comments could be added to clarify the relationships. However, the fact that B causes C and that C is a backout highlights that B isn't actually fixed. For this reason, D should be created as soon as it's clear B will be backed out — at the same time when C is created.

> I'm not saying I have the right answer here, but I definitely think that whatever we come up with should be documented in the guide, since this is indeed a tricky scenario.

I don't know the right answer either.

Yet I think A should have the _‘causes’_ link to both B and D, possibly a _‘relates to’_ link to C too.

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PR Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/guide/pull/139#issuecomment-2607478137