[llvm-dev] Bug-closing protocol

[JVApen via llvm-dev]

Hi all,

First of all, I'm sorry to create a separate thread on the mailing list, I
have disabled all mails from it.

I just read the thread about the bug closing protocol thanks to LLVMWeekly.
(http://lists.llvm.org/pipermail/llvm-dev/2018-June/123955.html)

I've noticed a lot of reactions from people involved with the solving part
of the bugs. So I'm putting out the loggers point of view. (Or at least
mine)

I'm totally in favor of getting relevant information when a bug gets
closed. Over the last couple of years, I've logged several bugs, of which a
couple of clang-cl compatibility bugs where put to invalid.
Having a good explanation on why this is closed helped me a lot in manually
fixing several thousand of occurrences of that pattern. Both mentally to
not give up, as by understanding the problem.
Please keep doing so!

However, from my point of view, this is the tip of an iceberg. Out of about
50 bugs I've logged on a variety of modules, only half reached an end
state. (Either fixed or invalid/won't fix).

My problem also lies in that other half, those bugs that have been open for
more than 2 weeks (upto 5 years). Cause if you don't get a reaction within
those 2 weeks, the chances of getting a reaction drop a lot. (Or if
reactions suddenly stop)

When a bug goes into such a state, you are lost as a bug logger. It took me
a couple of years getting our companies code compiling with clang-cl
(linking is far future), working around obscure bugs of which I still don't
know if you (as community/maintainer) agree if it is a bug.

To make matters worse, every time a component gets upgraded (internal
library, extrernal library or even the tool-chain, including clang), there
is a high probability of firefighting issues. Only when that fails, I spent
time logging a bug (as creduce doesn't work on my system).

In the best case scenario, I get an event like this weekend that states:
merged.
This means: I'm certain I'll have a fix in the future. Unfortunately, it is
only available in the next official release, which will happen in
September. And with a bit of luck, you can find back what the actual
revision is, to see the diff. So for now, the code is ifdef-ed out for
clang as it won't link anyhow.

In conclusion: I really respect the work you do, this puts the standard on
a high level. Taking the time to inform the bug logger is a must have.
However, it is not the only place were we as bug loggers are lacking
information.

JVApen
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