PEP: 3
Title: Guidelines for Handling Bug Reports
Version: $Revision$
Last-Modified: $Date$
Author: jeremy@alum.mit.edu (Jeremy Hylton)
Status: Withdrawn
Type: Process
Content-Type: text/x-rst
Created: 25-Sep-2000
Post-History:


Introduction
============

This PEP contained guidelines for handling bug reports in the Python
bug tracker.  It has been replaced by the Developer's Guide
description of issue triaging at

::

    https://docs.python.org/devguide/triaging.html

Guidelines for people submitting Python bugs are at

::

    http://docs.python.org/bugs.html

Original Guidelines
===================

1. Make sure the bug category and bug group are correct.  If they are
   correct, it is easier for someone interested in helping to find
   out, say, what all the open Tkinter bugs are.

2. If it's a minor feature request that you don't plan to address
   right away, add it to PEP 42 or ask the owner to add it for you.
   If you add the bug to PEP 42, mark the bug as "feature request",
   "later", and "closed"; and add a comment to the bug saying that
   this is the case (mentioning the PEP explicitly).

    ::

        XXX do we prefer the tracker or PEP 42?

3. Assign the bug a reasonable priority.  We don't yet have a clear
   sense of what each priority should mean.  One rule, however, is
   that bugs with priority "urgent" or higher must be fixed before
   the next release.

4. If a bug report doesn't have enough information to allow you to
   reproduce or diagnose it, ask the original submitter for more
   information.  If the original report is really thin and your email
   doesn't get a response after a reasonable waiting period, you can
   close the bug.

5. If you fix a bug, mark the status as "Fixed" and close it.  In the
   comments, include the SVN revision numbers of the commit(s). In
   the SVN checkin message, include the issue number **and** a
   normal description of the change, mentioning the contributor if a
   patch was applied.

6. If you are assigned a bug that you are unable to deal with, assign
   it to someone else if you think they will be able to deal with it,
   otherwise it's probably best to unassign it.


References
==========

.. [1] http://bugs.python.org/