Trac Project Ticket Triage

(document status: under development - please provide feedback to increase clarity and completeness)

This page lists guidelines and conventions used within the Trac project for ​triage of tickets.

Status and Resolution

fixed

is used when the resolution of the ticket can be linked to some change in the repository, a code change, a primary documentation fix, a contribution script added, etc. For ticket type task, fixed is used even if there was no trackable change in the repository/documentation.

worksforme

the problem reported was not really a problem; the requested feature is already implemented or can be obtained in a different way

wontfix

the problem reported is not really Trac's problem; the requested feature won't be implemented because we don't think it fits in the scope of the core of Trac, or the feature is implemented as a plugin.

• Note: In some cases however (e.g. #2611), we let the issue open even if the cause of the issue is not directly Trac's fault, so that workarounds and user experience can be collected.
• Note: If an API change is required to get a feature to work (that is intended to be implemented as a plugin), then a new ticket is opened with the requested API changes.

invalid

the ticket was a test ticket, intended for another Trac, etc.

duplicate

there's already another ticket about the same issue

• If marking as duplicate, include referring ticket #s in both duplicate and duplicated tickets.
  • In duplicate ticket: This ticket is duplicate of #1234
  • In original request: #2345 has been marked as duplicate of this ticket
• We usually let open the ticket which contains the most up-to-the-point discussion about the issue, the one which contains an appropriate patch, or other than that, the oldest ticket.

And also, don't close or reopen a ticket without a reason.

Milestone

• If resolution is fixed, the Milestone should be set, otherwise it should be blank.
• Don't assign a milestone without a reason or patch.
• Don't modify a milestone as anonymous and without a reason.
• If adding an enhancement request ticket, don't set the milestone to a bugfix only release (e.g. 0.10.2).

Ticket Title

• [PATCH] prepended - if you are the original ticket creator, then adding [PATCH] to the ticket title indicates a patch attached to ticket for review and integration that works for you.

Ticket Type

When the ticket is neither about something that requires a modification to the documentation or the code, use the task type.

Ticket Description

Only administrators can edit ticket descriptions. They are only edited to fix formatting errors, not the actual content. Occasionally, we may also add editorial notes, in order to not spread misleading information, e.g. #4297 or to summarize the current status of a long running issue, e.g. #4132 or #2611. In all cases, it should be quite clear from the formatting what's coming from the original author and what has been annotated afterwards.

Keywords

The purpose of keywords is to be able to generate pertinent and focused TracQueries, so use them appropriately.

• General indications - influencing the ticket workflow
  • needinfo - waiting on information from the reporter
  • tobedeleted - "noise" tickets that could eventually be safely deleted one day
  • helpwanted - tickets which are looking for contributors
  • review - peer review requested
  • documentation - things that need to be better documented
  • patch - same as review keyword, but when a patch is created by a third party
  • refactoring - indicates a refactoring step (e.g. patch) which changes structure but not functionality
• Related to work done in branches:
  setuptools, workflow (see WorkFlow), permissions (see PermissionPolicy), xref (see TracCrossReferences), tracobject (see GenericTrac)
• Related to some technology/APIs used: datetime, unicode, genshi, wsgi
• wannabee components:
  attachment, authz, config, custom fields, diff, syntax highlighting, milestone, mimeview, email notifications, plugin, query, session
• Related to backends and other 3rd party software
  • DatabaseBackends: mysql, postgresql, pysqlite
  • VersioningSystemBackends: svn (svn12, svn13, svn14), svk, mercurial
  • Python compatibility issues: python21, python22, python25
  • Other Python packages used: docutils, enscript, silvercity
• Platform specific issues: windows, solaris, macosx (TODO there are some Macintosh OS X to fix)
• Presentation issues
  • layout
  • css, javascript, xhtml
  • Browser specific: opera, iexplorer, firefox, safari
• Other kinds of grouping
  • crash - There's a segmentation fault or other serious OS level error implied.
  • security - Security issues with Trac
  • weird - Bugs from outer space

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Development Notes

(section contains notes subjecting the development of this document)

Policy for closing tickets for outdated Trac releases

• eblot: Following the update Matt did on #4222, I think we also need to document what is / would be the policy for outdated Trac releases (criteria to declare as wontfix, etc.)

Policy for closing tickets

• User intentions should be taken in account
• Avoid closing tickets without a comment of the reporter
  • This is especially true if the reporter is an active contributor
• Take care of the "wontfix/worksforme-arrogance"

• be open minded, and accept that the existent processes have some deficits (for sure there are documentation deficits, that's why this document was initiated)

​http://trac.edgewall.org/ticket/4174#comment:15