Blocking bugs process

[Aaron Bentley]

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On 2015-07-14 10:02 AM, Nate Finch wrote:
> I agree that if a blocker is found in an earlier minor version,
> that upgrading to a new minor version with the same blocker doesn't
> make anyone any worse off.

I think of this argument as "No use closing the barn door after the
horse has bolted."

I don't think it's entirely true.  For a given user, we don't know
what version they're upgrading from.  They may be getting their
updates from ubuntu, in which case they may have skipped the version
that introduced the regression.

e.g.

1. Ubuntu packages 1.21.0
2. Juju releases 1.22.0
3. Bug #37 is discovered in 1.22.0
4. Juju releases 1.22.1
5. Ubuntu packages 1.22.1
6. Juju fixes bug #37
7. Juju releases 1.22.2
8. Juju releases 1.22.3
9. Ubuntu packages 1.22.4

So here, we have users living with bug #37 until 1.22.4 is packaged by
Ubuntu, because we did not fix it for 1.22.1

Or maybe Ubuntu considers bug #37 a regression and refuses to package
any version containing it.

1. Ubuntu packages 1.21.0
2. Juju releases 1.22.0
3. Bug #37 is discovered in 1.22.0
4. Juju releases 1.22.1
5. Juju fixes bug #37
6. Juju releases 1.22.2
7. Juju releases 1.22.3
8. Ubuntu packages 1.22.4

Now, the users missed out on 1.22.1 and had to jump from .0 to .4.

I believe the number of users using juju via Ubuntu is significant, so
I wouldn't consider "the horse has bolted" until the bug is in
Ubuntu's juju.

> However, if we don't make it a stop-the-line, then we need some
> other way to ensure that the bug actually gets fixed ASAP....
> otherwise it could just tag along minor after minor and not get 
> addressed.  I don't think it's unreasonable to just make such a bug
> a blocker, just to get it addressed ASAP, even if it is not
> strictly making things worse than an earlier version.

Yes, and often if we react quickly, we can often roll back the commit
that introduced the bug within hours of it being introduced.

Aaron
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