report bugs to debian from ubuntu

28 Sep 2013

I’m a normal computer user, I don’t run local mail servers and I don’t have the intention to do so, I have my email account with gmail and I review it using a web browser or mutt when I’m in my own computer. This can be troublesome if you pretend to report bugs to debian using its bug tracker system an antique system based in emails.

To report a bug from within Ubuntu, people are suppose to type:

$ reportbug -B debian package

However it won’t work because it won’t find a local mail server (and it would let you know after you spend 15-20 min, smart programming 😒) After spending more precious time on Internet, you’ll find out it actually can be configured to use an external smtp server (I’ve read somewhere Debian devs are interested in upgrade BTS, and probably they will re-invent the wheel in the process because of course there are not enought bug trackers online)…

$ reportbug --configure

And you’ll need to input the following data:

After done it a new $HOME/.reportbugrc file will be created and the original command would work.

$ reportbug -B debian package

extra

If your report contain patches, and after configuring reportbug it may be a good idea to use submittodebian instead:

submittodebian only works when you’ve .orig, .diff, .changes files, these files are generated by debuild.

examples

apt-get source (traditional)

$ apt-get source xicc
$ cd cd xicc-0.2/
$ sed -i 's/colour/color/g' debian/control
$ dch -i 'debian/control: replaced "colour" with "color".'
$ debuild -S
$ submittodebian

bzr (modern)

$ bzr branch lp:ubuntu/xicc
$ cd xicc
$ sed -i 's/colour/color/g' debian/control
$ dch -i 'debian/control: replaced "colour" with "color".'
$ bzr commit -m 'replaced "colour" with "color".'
$ bzr bd -- -S
$ submittodebian

References