RE: Subject line processing in Gnats 4.0

[Dirk Bergstrom]

paul's refile-pr script may be found here:

http://www.otisbean.com/gnats/refile-pr.sh

you give it the number of a PR to append to, and a list of mistakenly created 
PRs, and it appends the relevant info from each bogus PR to the master PR, 
deleting each bogus PR in the process.  as written, the script is a bit 
dangerous -- get your args out of order, and you've put a big hole in your foot 
-- but it's the right tool for the job.

--
Dirk Bergstrom               address@hidden
_____________________________________________
Juniper Networks Inc.,          Computer Geek
Tel: 707.433.0564           Fax: 707.433.0769

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Traina 
> Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 9:43 PM
> To: Dirk Bergstrom; Milan Zamazal; Michael Richardson
> Cc: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: Subject line processing in Gnats 4.0
> 
> 
> Negative Dirk,
> I had it behave that way before, and it sucked.  Every time 
> someone sent in
> anything like "OS/2" it would append it to PR #2.
> Instead, I wrote a script called refile_pr (I think it may 
> still be in my
> home directory or under bin/... that solved this problem).
> If it's gone, I can tell you how to recreate it.  WIth gnats 4.0, it's
> trivial, about 5 lines of real code.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dirk Bergstrom" <address@hidden>
> To: "Milan Zamazal" <address@hidden>; "Michael Richardson"
> <address@hidden>
> Cc: <address@hidden>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 6:10 PM
> Subject: RE: Subject line processing in Gnats 4.0
> 
> 
> > i've been wrestling with this problem for some time (we've 
> been running
> > 4.0a for over a year...), and i've been meaning to send 
> this to the list
> > for a while:
> >
> > summary:
> > at my company, we have been having some difficulties with gnats'
> > handling of email replies to PRs.  gnats checks the subject 
> of incoming
> > mail, and if it matches a fairly restrictive pattern (must 
> look like a
> > reply), the message is appended to the relevant PR.  if there is no
> > match, a new PR is created.  this often leads to creation 
> of bogus PRs,
> > because the matching expression is too restrictive.  i 
> propose that we
> > remove the restriction, and append *all* messages with 
> subjects matching
> >
> > a PR to that PR.
> >
> > detailed explanation:
> > when a message is filed by queue-pr (via file-pr), gnats scans the
> > subject line for the following regex (line 575 in file-pr.c):
> >
> > "(.*re[ \t]*(\\[[0-9]+\\])?:)?[ \t]*([-a-z0-9_+.]*[:/][ 
> \t]*([0-9]+))"
> >
> > which (sort of) translates to a regex of /.*(re:)? 
> <category>/<pr_num>/.
> > if it
> > finds this pattern, the message is appended to pr_num; if not, gnats
> > creates a new PR, using the subject as synopsis, and body as
> > description.
> >
> > this only works if people using gnats pay close attention 
> to the subject
> >
> > of their emails.  in the real world, however, developers forward
> > messages, they use mailers that insert extra cruft in the 
> subject line
> > (email addresses, names, etc), and sometimes gnats is used 
> in concert
> > with a different bug-tracking system, which inserts it's 
> own tracking
> > number in the subject.  whatever the cause, the result is a 
> bogus PR,
> > which clutters up the system, confuses developers and 
> support staff, and
> >
> > takes time and energy to close/expunge.
> >
> > these subjects do the Right Thing:
> >
> > *) re: compiler/9876: compiled code runs backwards
> > *) serial-port/1234: cannot process frosted flakes
> >
> > but these subjects all do the Wrong Thing (create new PR, instead of
> > appending):
> >
> > *) Re: FW: sw-kern-sanders/16543: kernel panic on gunshot
> > *) PR 12345
> > *) Fw: sw-rip-vnwnkl/10795: The routing subsystem is asleep
> > *) RE: 2001-0821-021: hw-pr0n/16413 FPC shows pictures of 
> naked ladies
> > on reboot
> >
> > (basically, anything in front of the category that's not 
> "re:" bombs.)
> >
> > i believe that the current behavior violates the principle of least
> > surprise -- if i send a message to bugs with a subject "re: fw:
> > sw-foo/1234", i expect that gnats will append it to PR 
> 1234.  opening a
> > new PR is *not* what i intend.
> >
> > solution:
> > it's not clear to me why the regex is so restrictive.  i 
> think it would
> > make more sense for gnats to assume that any message with a 
> parseable PR
> >
> > identifier (<category>/<pr_num>) in the subject should be 
> appended to
> > that PR.  that would allow for all the real-world messages to be
> > processed in a manner that would not surprise the sender.
> >
> > furthermore, i think it should also accept "PR<pr_num>", if 
> it is the
> > first reasonable text in the subject, a regex along the lines of "^[
> > \t]*((re|fw):)?[ \t]*pr([0-9]+)".  i often see bogus PRs with this
> > synopsis, which were clearly intended to be part of <pr_num>, not
> > separate PRs.  however, this would be a more extreme 
> change, and might
> > have unforseen consequences...
> >
> > does anyone see a reason to keep the restrictive regex?
> >
> > --
> > Dirk Bergstrom               address@hidden
> > _____________________________________________
> > Juniper Networks Inc.,          Computer Geek
> > Tel: 707.433.0564           Fax: 707.433.0769
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Milan Zamazal [mailto:address@hidden
> > > Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2001 3:23 PM
> > > To: Michael Richardson
> > > Cc: address@hidden
> > > Subject: Re: Subject line processing in Gnats 4.0
> > >
> > >
> > > >>>>> "MR" == Michael Richardson 
> <address@hidden> writes:
> > >
> > >     MR>   Following the code through, it calls sends SUBM to the
> > >     MR> server... and there is some heuristic in the 
> gnatsd that sees
> > >     MR> the subject line. And this has worked... sometimes.
> > > But I have a
> > >     MR> number of times it hasn't worked, and new PRs 
> were created. I
> > >     MR> can share them if this isn't a known problem.
> > >
> > > The problem is not known to me.  Please provide me with 
> the details.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Milan Zamazal
> > >
> > > --
> > > It's amazing how much better you feel once you've given up hope.
> > >                                                 (unknown source)
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Help-gnats mailing list
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> > > http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-gnats
> > >
> >
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