Ubuntu Wiki

Dev Week -- Launchpad Bug Tracking -- intellectronica -- Tue, Jan 20

UTC -4 (EST)

(10:59:00 AM) dholbach: and we have Tom Berger, Mr intellectronica here who will talk to us about "Launchpad Bug Tracking"
(10:59:02 AM) pedro_: rock and roll!
(10:59:07 AM) dholbach: if you have questions, PLEASE ASK
(10:59:16 AM) dholbach: but PLEASE ask in #ubuntu-classroom-chat
(10:59:27 AM) dholbach: and prefix your questions with   QUESTION:
(10:59:40 AM) dholbach: ie. QUESTION: Tom, what is your favourite colour?
(10:59:43 AM) dholbach: ALRIGHT
(10:59:52 AM) intellectronica: hi everone
(10:59:52 AM) dholbach: have a great Day 2 everybody, hope you enjoy it!
(10:59:57 AM) dholbach: intellectronica: the stage is yours :-)
(11:00:06 AM) intellectronica: thanks dholbach. hugs aplenty
(11:00:10 AM) dholbach: :-)
(11:00:22 AM) intellectronica: so, we gathered here today to celebrate an historic event :)
(11:00:38 AM) intellectronica: thanks to everyone who joined despite the obvious competition
(11:01:10 AM) intellectronica: i'd like to introduce you to, and mainly answer your questions about, Malone, the Launchpad bug tracker
(11:01:20 AM) intellectronica: (which I am taking part in developing)
(11:01:36 AM) intellectronica: and which is the bug tracker ubuntu uses
(11:02:05 AM) intellectronica: i haven't prepared much in advance, since i don't know what's the level of familiarity you guys already have with LP
(11:02:28 AM) slavik: how does it compare with bugzilla from the administration and setting up side?
(11:02:32 AM) intellectronica: so let's start with a survey (you can answer here). on a scale of 1-10, how familiar are you guys with Malone
(11:02:32 AM) intellectronica: ?
(11:02:40 AM) slavik: 0 :(
(11:02:43 AM) Chris`: 1
(11:02:43 AM) addc182: 0
(11:02:48 AM) schmiedc: 1
(11:02:52 AM) Ape3000: 7
(11:03:02 AM) creek23: 1
(11:03:07 AM) Riddell: 8
(11:03:09 AM) ccm: 5 i guess
(11:03:10 AM) zerwas: 1
(11:03:12 AM) sianis: 5
(11:03:15 AM) porthose: 0
(11:03:19 AM) cool2k: 1
(11:03:20 AM) thekorn: 7.99
(11:03:23 AM) dholbach: 8
(11:03:31 AM) theseas: 0
(11:03:33 AM) toobuntu_: 0
(11:03:36 AM) intellectronica: thekorn: give me a break, you're more like 11 :)
(11:03:38 AM) TheEnd2012: 0
(11:04:00 AM) slavik: intellectronica: you're 11, we're all lowly -1 :(
(11:04:07 AM) thekorn: intellectronica, hehe ;)
(11:04:11 AM) intellectronica: slavik: the obvious difference is that Launchpad is a hosted service. there's no set up at all for the users
(11:05:03 AM) intellectronica: unlike bugzilla, which you have to install on a server and administrate, launchpad runs off launchpad.net and the launchpad team takes care to maintain it
(11:05:40 AM) intellectronica: so the only setup procedure you might have, is registering a new project you might want to track. that's quite simple to do
(11:06:12 AM) intellectronica: and for your use of LP as a bug tracker for ubuntu, there's absolutely no setup you need to do. just create an account and start messing with bugs
(11:06:13 AM) slavik: intellectronica: I see. Can Launchpad authenticate against LDAP/AD?
(11:06:56 AM) dholbach: slavik: can you please ask questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat?
(11:06:58 AM) Chris`: slavik: Just a note, we've been asked to prefix our questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat with "QUESTION: Question to person?" there
(11:07:11 AM) intellectronica: slavik: no. launchpad provides its own authentication system, which can also be used as an Open ID provider, and is widely used across the ubuntu landscape
(11:07:46 AM) thekorn left the room (quit: "Verlassend").
(11:08:08 AM) intellectronica: Ape3000 is asking whether LP is available for private installations. the answer not yet. LP will become free software this summer, at which point you'll be able to install it anywhere (and modify it and help developing it)
(11:08:25 AM) hggdh|away is now known as hggdh
(11:08:39 AM) intellectronica: but we very strongly believe that a lot of the value you get from Launchpad comes from it being a central hub in the middle of the free software ecosystem
(11:09:18 AM) intellectronica: the ability to track and and connect bugs from ubuntu, as well as many other projects, using the same site, makes launchpad.net a very powerful tool
(11:09:53 AM) intellectronica: one example of that, which we will look at shortly, is the ability to connect bugs in ubuntu to bugs upstream projects
(11:10:18 AM) intellectronica: slavik asks what tools and languages are used for the development of LP
(11:11:17 AM) intellectronica: LP is written in Python and uses Zope3 as its main web framework, Postgres as a database, Storm (the canonical-developed ORM) as a data layer and lots of other goodies
(11:12:46 AM) intellectronica: you can also access launchpad using a public web service API which uses the REST protocol, from any language. we provide a python library which helps you use that service (more about that later today, when Leonard Richardson will present the API and library right here)
(11:13:19 AM) intellectronica: and yes, Launchpad, obviously, runs on Ubuntu :)
(11:13:39 AM) intellectronica: let's get on with some action!
(11:14:23 AM) intellectronica: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu is the top level page in LP for ubuntu bugs
(11:14:54 AM) intellectronica: it gives you an overview, and allows you to run simple searches for bugs
(11:15:39 AM) intellectronica: for example, just type some (plausible) text into the text box and hit [Search] to get a bug listing
(11:16:31 AM) intellectronica: for all the following examples i will use staging.launchpad.net
(11:16:59 AM) intellectronica: staging.launchpad.net is a server we keep for testing and experimenting with LP. it has a copy of the launchpad database that is being restored daily
(11:17:27 AM) intellectronica: IMPORTANT: please use the staging for trying out anything that changes the data (like creating new bugs, adding bogus comments, etc)
(11:17:52 AM) intellectronica: that way you'll know that you can experiment freely without polluting LP itself with bad data
(11:18:39 AM) intellectronica: likewise, remember that any changes you make on the staging server will be wiped out. do not use it for real work
(11:19:53 AM) intellectronica: Chris` is asking whether data from staging will be wiped out after posting. the answer is yes - it is being wiped out daily, so you've got anything from a few minutes to whole day to still work with this data
(11:20:53 AM) intellectronica: so, you all see what a bug listing in LP looks like
(11:21:03 AM) intellectronica: you can choose a new sort order and search again
(11:21:28 AM) intellectronica: or, if you need a more complex search, you can click _Advanced search_
(11:21:31 AM) intellectronica: let's do just that
(11:22:05 AM) intellectronica: i'm looking at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?advanced=1
(11:23:01 AM) intellectronica: the status and importance sections are obvious, i think. they will select any _inclusive_ combination of the values you tick
(11:24:02 AM) intellectronica: the people section allows you to select bugs that are related to certain people. for example, you might want to look only at bugs reported by someone, or assigned to someone, and so on
(11:25:32 AM) intellectronica: using the series and component section, you can filter so that only bugs specific to a series or a component within the distribution are selected. this is particularly relevant to you folks working with ubuntu, because as you might have noticed, dealing with all the bugs for ubuntu is pretty much impossible
(11:26:31 AM) intellectronica: the upstream status section is very useful when you try to get bugs found in ubuntu and see how they are connected to the upstream projects where they originated
(11:27:07 AM) intellectronica: this is, i think an especially important concept, so let's try and talk about it a bit more
(11:28:08 AM) intellectronica: many bugs that are found it ubuntu, are actually bugs that originated in some upstream project which is being distributed as part of ubuntu
(11:28:47 AM) intellectronica: reporting it in ubuntu itself is a great first step, but it's usually not enough. we have to make sure that the upstream project knows about it, if we hope to get it fixed one day
(11:29:49 AM) intellectronica: any questions so far?
(11:30:43 AM) intellectronica: Chris` is asking what is edge.launchpad.net and how it differs from staging
(11:31:00 AM) intellectronica: edge is a launchpad server which uses the _real_ data, just like launchpad.net
(11:31:37 AM) intellectronica: it is available to LP beta testers (which you are all very welcome to join - it's fun and gives you an opportunity to help and influence LP development)
(11:31:58 AM) intellectronica: launchpad is released monthly with new features and bug fixes to launchpad.net
(11:32:20 AM) intellectronica: on edge, these changes are released as soon as they are available
(11:33:19 AM) intellectronica: so, you can 'live on the edge' and use a constantly changing version of launchpad - giving you a chance to test (and comment on) the latest features, or you can use launchpad.net and get a very stable version that gets updated once a month
(11:34:09 AM) intellectronica: shankhs is asking whether it is the responsibility of upstream devs to look for bugs in ubuntu that may be related to their project, or the responsibility of ubuntu devs
(11:34:57 AM) intellectronica: the answer is that the relationship is collaborative, and anyone can deal with this, but you must remember that upstream devs have many things to deal with, and many other distributions. we can't expect them to always follow ubuntu
(11:35:17 AM) intellectronica: which is why we try to make it very easy for people to forward bugs upstream
(11:36:21 AM) intellectronica: let's look at https://bugs.staging.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+bug/162701
(11:36:22 AM) ubot5: Launchpad bug 162701 in pidgin "pidgin freezes while typing a message" [High,Triaged]
(11:37:15 AM) intellectronica: notice anything special about this bug?
(11:38:04 AM) intellectronica: this bug might look like it's affecting two packages, but that isn't really the case
(11:38:17 AM) intellectronica: we can see that it's affected the pidgin package in ubuntu
(11:38:44 AM) intellectronica: but above it, we see that it also affects PulseAudio, which is an upstream project, not part of ubuntu
(11:39:34 AM) intellectronica: this is a good example of how LP can represent the link between ubuntu and upstream projects
(11:40:06 AM) intellectronica: if you click the _Also affectes project_ link, you can mark a bug as affecting other projects
(11:40:26 AM) intellectronica: come on, give it a try (on STAGING)
(11:41:41 AM) intellectronica: if you clicked, you can see that the pidgin package is already associated with the pidgin upstream project. we sometimes know this in advance, which can help you
(11:42:19 AM) intellectronica: it also tells you that pidgin tracks its bug outside of launchpad, using Trac, and gives you the url to the trac server it uses
(11:43:05 AM) intellectronica: if you manage to find a relevant bug in trac, you can paste the url into the first box - launchpad will follow that bug on your behalf and update the status
(11:43:43 AM) intellectronica: launchpad can do this for many bug trackers: Trac, Bugzilla, Sourceforge (and some of its derivatives), Roundup, etc'...
(11:44:37 AM) intellectronica: for Trac and Bugzilla, we provide a plug in which makes the communication with Launchpad especially efficient, and allows the bug trackers to exchange comments too (but it's the responsibility of the upstream project to install that plugin)
(11:45:34 AM) intellectronica: ah, i can see that many of you experimented with creating new tasks for that bug, linking it to other projects, distros and packages. you guys are quick learners! :)
(11:46:39 AM) intellectronica: if you click the status of one of the lines that show the bug reported in an upstream project, you'll see that it's different from normal launchpad bugs
(11:46:59 AM) intellectronica: that's the stuff pertaining to bug watches, the mechanism LP uses for tracking bugs in external bug trackers
(11:48:05 AM) intellectronica: shall we quickly look at reporting a bug? we're rapidly running out of time, so in parallel, please go ahead and ask questions if you have any
(11:48:55 AM) intellectronica: i'm looking at https://bugs.staging.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
(11:49:50 AM) intellectronica: this is the start of the bug filing process, but it's way too general. it is very rare that you'll want to file a bug about ubuntu as a whole. it's almost always the case that a specific package would be more appropriate
(11:51:06 AM) intellectronica: you can always start from something like https://bugs.staging.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+filebug and report the bug directly on the package
(11:52:04 AM) intellectronica: notice how slow the staging server is, b.t.w :)   obviously, it doesn't have the same amount of resources as the real launchpad servers
(11:52:55 AM) intellectronica: after i enter a bug description, LP tries to find similar bug descriptions, so that i don't unnecessarily report a bug that's already reported
(11:53:45 AM) intellectronica: if i don't identify the bug in the list of similar bugs, i can click 'No, i'd lke to report a new bug' and the details are shown
(11:54:44 AM) intellectronica: first, we're asked in what package the bug was found. it is really important to try and find out. otherwise, the ubuntu qa and development teams will have a very hard time dealing with it
(11:55:36 AM) intellectronica: you can also look at the instructions at the bottom of the page for what to do and not to do
(11:56:13 AM) intellectronica: you can include an attachment - perhaps some data for helping diagnose the problem
(11:57:06 AM) intellectronica: if you suspect that the bug is a security vulnerability, it's important that you indicate that using the checkbox. the bug will become private until further notice and will be treated more urgently in many cases
(11:57:24 AM) intellectronica: ongolaBoy is asking about the different bug statuses
(11:57:43 AM) intellectronica: New: the bug has just been reported
(11:58:13 AM) intellectronica: Incomplete: more information is needed for people to be able to work on the bug. the reporter, or other people, should add more information in comments
(11:58:37 AM) intellectronica: Invalid: actually, this bug isn't relevant, or is not really a bug. you can ignore it
(11:59:04 AM) intellectronica: Won't Fix: this bug will not be fixed. maybe it's impossible to fix it...
(11:59:28 AM) intellectronica: Confirmed: not used by ubuntu, but in some other projects it means that someone managed to reproduce the bug
(11:59:57 AM) intellectronica: Triaged: the relevant team has looked at the bug and decided what to do with it, what importance to give it, etc
(12:00:07 PM) intellectronica: In Progress: the bug is being worked on
(12:00:19 PM) intellectronica: Fix Commited: the fix is ready and commited to the source tree
(12:00:33 PM) intellectronica: Fix released: the latest version of the software no longer has the bug
(12:01:29 PM) intellectronica: i see that we're running out of time. of course, i managed to cover about 10% of what i wanted to :-/
(12:01:48 PM) intellectronica: but let's take more questions before i'm being kicked out
(12:02:33 PM) intellectronica: and of course, i hang out in #launchpad all the time, and you are all very welcome to drop by, ask me or any of the other devs questions and enjoy the view
(12:03:36 PM) intellectronica: Ape3000 is asking what my favourite colour. black, at least for today
(12:03:48 PM) intellectronica: shankhs: is asking about patches and fixing bugs
(12:04:06 PM) intellectronica: when you upload an attachment to launchpad, you can mark it as a patch
(12:04:47 PM) intellectronica: it is later easy to search for patches (you may have noticed it in the bug search form)
(12:05:34 PM) intellectronica: if a project uses launchpad for code hosting, you can use bazaar for making fixes, which is really cool. there's a session on that later this week
(12:05:49 PM) intellectronica: oright, i think it's time for ara to start her show
(12:06:04 PM) intellectronica: thanks everyone, and please, do feel free to continue asking questions on #launchpad