[xen-tools-dev] bug tracker revisited (was: Re: TODOs (and bug tracker again))

[Axel Beckert]

Hi,

About a year ago I was looking for a proper distribution-agnostic(*)
bug tracker for xen-tools, but wasn't really satisifed with any I
found.

(*) means that we can't track all issues in Debian's Bug Tracking
    Systems (as we currently more or less do :-).

On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 02:15:32AM +0200, Axel Beckert wrote:
> On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 11:44:54PM +0200, Dmitry Nedospasov wrote:
> > Do we need a bug/feature tracker?

Yeah, we need one. A light one should do it though.

> I try to summarise what's in my mind WRT bug tracker:
> 
> * I want something distributed or selfhosted.
> * I'm probably not happy with any hosted solution, at least not
>   with SF, Lauchpad, or Google Code.

Still the case.

> * An e-mail based interface similar to the one of the Debian Bug
>   Tracking System would be fine.

I'd give up that requirement. We don't have so many bugs to manage, so
if we have a web and command-line interface, an e-mail interface is
expendable.

> * I definitely prefer a DVCS over a VCS since I'm often code on my
>   projects on the train, etc. where mobile network connections are
>   flakey.

Since all Distributed Bug Tracking Systems (DBTS) I looked at at that
time didn't have a satisfying web interface, I dropped the idea back
then.

So I played with Mantis, Redmine, Roundup and Flyspray. The Mantis
installation was the one which survived (and still exists), but never
was really used because I wasn't really happy with that either.

I still ogle with a DBTS based on a DVCS, so yesterday evening I
looked again through those DBTS which are

* available in Debian (at least in Debian Unstable),

* offer a web interface (which is not declared as "for local use
  only", i.e. bugs everywhere is option at the moment), and

* can use git as backend.

This leaves following DBTS in the race:

* ditz (distributed; VCS; Ruby; optional GUI; Emacs mode; also
  includes release management features; read-only,
  static, but very shiney web interface; http://ditz.rubyforge.org/)

* ticgit (distributed; git; Ruby; read/write webinterface written in
  Ruby, too; https://github.com/jeffWelling/ticgit)

Both are actively maintained. Ditz just got two new upstream
maintainers[1] and there's a lot of drive towards a new release in
ditz' git repository[2]

  [1] http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/ditz-talk/2011-February/000539.html
  [2] http://gitorious.org/ditz

I must say, I was surprised how much better the situation is than a
year ago. Both seem to fit my ideas of how we could track bugs in
xen-tools.

My stomach currently tends to ditz:

* static web interface:
  + No form spam in the git repo
  + Easier to deploy
  + No fear of performance issues at all
  + Looks very nice: http://ditz.rubyforge.org/ditz/
  - No user bug-reporting via the web interface though
* release management included, see http://ditz.rubyforge.org/ditz/
* offers different usage schemes:
  * bug reports in the same branch as the code
    + bugs get closed with the very same commit with which they get
      fixed
    + bugs are only open in those branches where they are (still)
      present.
    - bug reports are part of the code tree (some see this as
      advantage[3])
  * bug reports in a separate branch
    + one place for all bugs
    + bug reports outside the code tree
    - no integrated way to see to which branch a bug applies

  [3] http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/ditz-talk/2011-February/000539.html

With ticgit I fear that the bug reporting web interface will attract
web form spammers and clutter our git repo with this spam. Would also
need a more complex setup with keeping our git repos and bug-tracker
web interface in sync.

Does anyone else have experiences with ditz or ticgit? I'd be happy to
hear some other opinions before deploying one of these in the
xen-tools git repository. :-)

		Kind regards, Axel
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