[BusyBox] Lots of bugs and no time...

[Mark Whitley]

On Tue, Mar 27, 2001 at 01:41:12PM -0600, David Douthitt wrote:
> Mark Whitley wrote:
> 
> > There are plenty of problems with Busybox that need fixing but we can't do
> > them all at once. We have limited resources to devote to Busybox and we rely
> > on contributions from other folks on the list.
> 
> I'll try to not belabour the point too badly, but I've posted a fix
> and a patch (twice); posted notices of both to the buglist and the
> mailing list, and have had little or no response.

Believe it or not, it was actually on my TODO list to look at this, I just
hadn't gotten around to DO-ing it yet. Sorry about that.

> One bug (#1115) was re-reported by Giulio Orsero and was resubmitted
> as #1140.  Still no fix, even though I posted a patch.

I was not able to find your patch for "ls reports half the size" in the bug
tracking system, but I was able to find it in the mailing list archives. I
applied it, tested it, and checked it in.

Giulio, please test this on your system and verify.

> Another is a wishlist item (#1112) and has no response outside of
> Vlad's rejection of it (perfectly valid, in my opinion).  No official
> response, however...

Here's a semi-official response: I don't think this would be a large enough
benefit to justify applying it. The way I would rather see this done is either
with a wrapper script or via an alias in the shell.

Erik? Do you have any strong feelings one way or the other about bug #1112?

> I realize you all are busy, but only thing talking to me right now is
> the automated bug system... I'm trying to be patient, and I suspect
> that my own failings are showing, but I'd like to know something at
> least.

Actually, this is one of the more gentle "nudges" I've received. I think
perhaps that it is our (where our == busybox maintainers) failings that are
showing. I hope the replies I've given above are helpful.

For future reference, here is some advice on how to not let your patches get
ignored:

 - Communicate directly with the person who reported the bug. Say: "Here is a
   patch, try it." If it works for them, then there will be two voices
   petitioning to get the patch checked in.

 - Communicate directly with the applet maintainer. ls is maintained mostly by
   Erik, so you could send an email directly to him. If you'd like, you can
   also send patches for ls directly to me in the future and I'll try to give
   them a look-see.

 - Like I mentioned, I was able to find your patch on the mailing list
   archives but not in the bug-tracking system. Sending a message there with
   a big subject line that reads: "FIX INCLUDED" or some such will get
   attention and help ensure that your patch is not lost.

Hope that helps.

> Thanks for the hard work!  What's keeping you all so busy anyway?

Would that there were time enough to tell...


Mark Whitley
markw at lineo.com