[MPlayer-dev-eng] Re: PATCHES

[Jason Lunz]

I have not used many bug-tracking systems, but we decided on using
bugzilla at work after considering bugzilla, sourceforge, and the debian
bts. The debian bugzilla packages make it very easy to set up.

arpi at thot.banki.hu said:
> my ideas about the ideal patch management system:
> - user commits his patch, through some web interface, or via email, along
> with his comments. it also arrives in form of mail to -dev-eng or new list
> mplayer-patches by the patch management system so we can discuss it

bugzilla can do this, and can do it in a configurable manner.
Attachments to a bug can be created through the web interface; I don't
know about email.

> - you can assign the patch to somebody (mplayer developers with cvs
> access) for review - optionaly more than one person - optionaly it
> does this automatically depending on area (selected by patch maker)
> the patch belongs to

bugzilla does this. Every bug has a submitter and an owner.  You can
require that a bug (patch) be verified by someone other than the
submitter before it becomes a "real" bug. The developer the bug gets
assigned to has to accept the bug, or he can reassign it to someone
else. Or refuse it.  There's also a system for voting on bugs to
determine which ones are most "popular".

> - you can set priority for patch, and view them sorted by it

bugzilla can do this; it has a very powerful query system that lets you
see bugs by subsystem, or owner, or submitter, or priority, and many
other criteria. You can bookmark these searches.

> - you can refuse or accept patch, not listed any more by default

bugzilla does this. You can mark bugs INVALID, or WONTFIX, or reassign
them to another developer, or ACCEPT it, or mark it to be handled LATER.

> - user can commit updated version of his patch, without re-creating teh
> patch entry, so we can follow the changes of the patch (diff of diff? :))

I don't know about that. You can always add rediffed patches as
additional attachments.

> ok, end of dreaming :)
> let's recommend something close to the above requirements...

Other things that make bugzilla a good choice: It's intended for mixed
public/developer use, so any user can create their own unprivileged
account to view and submit bugs, but only developers with higher
privileges can do more. Which accounts have which privileges is
configurable by accounts with sufficient privileges.

Overall, bugzilla pretty much handles all your requirements in one way
or another. I don't even dislike it, which is saying a lot for a bug
tracking system I have to use.

Jason