Bug filing/triage/ownership policy for modules
With regard to the recent protobuf package issue and the eclipse module, I
started wondering how bugs work with packages bundled in modules. That is,
packages that exist outside modules (e.g., protobuf) that end up bundled with
some module.
NOTE: It is very easy for module posts to quickly balloon out in to all sorts
of topics and stories. I would prefer that we keep this thread related to the
Subject above. Thanks.
The following are policy questions I came up with after the protobuf issue
happened:
1) Are modules allowed to bundle packages that are provided by and currently
maintained in the base system? Are there are restrictions to what a module
can bundle (e.g., can a module bundle glibc)?
2) Using protobuf as an example, if a bug is found by a user and they happen
to deduce that the error is in protobuf, how do they file a bug? Do they file
the bug against protobuf if the bundled one from the module has the issue?
What maintainer is on the hook for handling that bug report? My assumption
here is that the module maintainer is ultimately responsible for everything
they bundle. Another concern I see here is we are opening ourselves up for
N+1 different builds of protobuf where N is the number of modules installed on
a system and all of them could have protobuf bundled.
3) If a user files a bug against a module and the module maintainer triages
that to a bundled package, how is that handled? Who is maintaining the
bundled build of that package? Who is responsible for fixing it?
4) How can users determine what packages are installed from a module and how
can you see what, if any, module "owns" a package? I have been unable to
determine how to do this from dnf.
5) How are CVEs handled for packages that are also bundled with a module?
I have read as much as I can find about how things work right now with
modules, but that has been mostly the "how" and nothing around policy.
Thanks,
--
David Cantrell <dcantrell(a)redhat.com>
Red Hat, Inc. | Boston, MA | EST5EDT