[gnu.andrew at redhat.com: Re: OpenJDK 8u and Backport Bugs]

[Langer, Christoph]

Hi Severin,

> > sorry for being late on this discussion, I just now found the time to
> > go through the mail thread on 8u-dev in detail. But, hold on, why are
> > you proposing this change to the process? What issues are you aiming
> > to solve?
> 
> We need a way to distribute backporting work. The intention is to solve
> a couple of problems with it:
> 
>  * Allow for proper reporting. Time a backport bug gets opened until it is
>    resolved kind of metrics. Using labels for this isn't working as well
>    (less structure).
>  * Assign specific backport issues to a certain user. This is a more
>    formal
> 
ata 
Don't know whether your mail got cut too early and there is more to come... ��

As for those two points: I can understand them - as specific requirements for your workflow within your company, I guess. So to solve these, I think it's ok to create backport items and track them. However, it comes with the issues I described before so correctly setting and double checking of the "fixed version" field before pushing is required.

Having that said, I still don't think that opening backport items in advance should be the blueprint for contributors to the JDK updates projects, as the 8u Wiki currently suggests. If at all, it should be optional.

And all the maintainer labeling and fix request comments should be done in the master bug - this makes life easier for maintainers, e.g. having all the relevant discussion in one place, being able to directly opening the original commit links, seeing where the item already got backported to etc. And it also keeps information consistent and in one place.

Cheers
Christoph