4 ms·

Why do Git and Debian only use a mailing list and not an issue tracker?

• claudius 14y ago
  The title is slightly misleading – neither does Debian primarily use ‘mailing lists’ to report/manage bugs, nor does it not have an issue tracker. debbugs is operated by email, yes, but it also has a (read-only) web interface and is pretty much by definition an issue tracker, uploads to the Debian archive, e.g., can be ‘tagged’ as closing particular bugs.
  • rhelmer 14y ago
    Right, debbugs is a definitely a bug tracker. PostgreSQL is a better example of a project that uses a mailing list rather than a bug tracker: http://www.postgresql.org/support/submitbug/ http://www.postgresql.org/support/submitbug/
• jlgreco 14y ago
  Not mentioned: Mailing lists are idiot filters. If you can't use one, chances are rather low that you have anything of worth to say. Just look at the issue trackers for many other open source projects: flooded with "me too!" comments.
  • _ZeD_ 14y ago
    wait... mailing list are hard??
    • jlgreco 14y ago
      It is indeed a low bar, so the fact that it seems so effective as a crapfilter probably says something rather depressing...
• dragonwriter 14y ago
  "bug tracker" is a function. "mailing list" is a mechanism. A mailing list can be a bug tracker. So can a spreadsheet. So can an RDBMS-backed web app. So can index cards stuck to a wall. Obviously, each of these mechanisms has strengths and weaknesses as a bug tracker.