Starting with Intrepid we are tracking functional regressions between releases. Regressions make for a poor user experience and therefore often count as release blockers. Even when we decide it is unavoidable to ship with a known regression we should document it clearly.
Regressions will be marked on the Launchpad bug with one of these tags:
regression-release |
A regression in a new stable release or a development release. This may be a bug in a single package or functionality lost when changing the default application. |
regression-update |
A regression introduced by an updated package in the stable release. |
regression-proposed |
A regression introduced by a package in -proposed |
regression-retracer |
Used by the retracer when it finds a bug that has a similar trace to a previously closed bug. |
- Nominate / target to every release the regression found in whatever the release is(development or released).
- Add a tag with the release name of the release the regression was discovered in first.
- Add the last known good version to the description
Please also make sure that a comment is added to the bug when marking it with one of the regression tags, to match BugSquad policies.
Regression data template
It is important to use this exact template so we can programatically extract the information.
== Regression details == Discovered in version: Last known good version:
Example bugs
regression-release
Copying Files From CD/DVD Sets Permissions To Read Only |
Hardy/Intrepid |
|
cheese malfunctioning with UVCVIDEO webcams |
Hardy/Intrepid |
|
relocation error with latest wxwidgets2.8 |
Lucid |
|
[MASTER] package fglrx 2:8.723.1-0ubuntu4 failed to install/upgrade: Kernel fix for CVE-2010-3081 breaks fglrx |
Hardy/Jaunty/Karmic/Lucid |
Tracking
In addition to the tag search views in Launchpad itself, the regression tags will be monitored at reports.qa.ubuntu.com in a view similar to this prototype regression tracking page. Please report feedback on the comments section of this page or email sbeattie@ubuntu.com directly. There will also be an archive view.
Special case tags
Some teams may want to track a certain type of regressions that do not fit into the scheme described here. An example is the recent move from the 2.6.26 to 2.6.27 kernel fairly late in the Intrepid cycle. In this case the kernel team was esp. interested in regressions from .26 to .27, tagging them regression-2.6.27. These may not fit neatly into the tracking scheme described here (in this case a 2.6.26 was not shipped in a stable release so a regression from .26 to .27 is not actually a distro regression unless it also worked in 2.6.24), but we can still include such special cases on the tracking page.
Future development
Regression tracking should eventually become a Launchpad feature.
Comments
[Leann] - I don't think it will be necessary to tag bugs regression-fixed. The reason is that regressions should have already been tagged regression-*. Once a bug with a regression-* tag has a status change to "Fix Released" that should indicate the regression has been fixed.
- [Brian] - I agree with Leann here
- [Steve] - That makes sense. Should only bugs in main be nominated to the ubuntu-release-notes project, as well as requiring some level of severity (high?)?
- [Leann] - Yes, I agree there should be a criteria in order to make the release notes - otherwise that section would likely become quite bloated and not as helpful. What Steve has described above seems fine. Should we also maybe take into consideration the number of subscribers or duplicates the bug has?
[Henrik] - I've removed the regression-fixed item
[jibel] ubuntu-devel thread