When should a bug be considered as a regression or a release_blocker?

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Wednesday, June 20, 2012 22:15:35 Mark wrote:
> To me the definition of a regression is as follows:
> A regression is an issue that wasn't in the previous release.

that would describe all new bugs ;)

a regression is something that worked properly (for whatever that means in the 
given situation) in a previous release and then ceased to do so.

> Things get a bit more complicated with adding the "release_blocker"
> keyword. When do you add that keyword to a bug?

data loss, a bug that renders the entire application unusable for the intended 
primary use cases, .. it's a very serious situation.

if in doubt -> ask on the list.

> Thus far i considered a bug a "release_blocker" if the issue means
> that the item is unusable or causing loss of data. For example
> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=301854. It's a very innocent
> plasmoid, but it's unusable on multiscreen environments thus i marked
> it as a release blocker. 

this is not a release blocker. why? because:

* it is an optional component, critical to neither the use of kget nor plasma 
desktop

* it does not cause data loss

* it does not render the system generally inoperable

it is a rendering issue. it's also a component that ships with kget and 
maintained by the kget developers so it should be assigned to kget in bugzilla 
(already done this).

it is not, however, a release blocker. it's something the kget developers, or 
someone who feels motivated to help them out :), need to fix.

> Both issues are not something that obstruct normal KDE usage, but they
> do render some parts of KDE completely useless. I'm a bit unsure if i
> should mark such bugs as release blockers.

not when they are this minor, no.

> Perhaps there should be a
> keyword called "component_blocker" indicating that a specific
> component (specified in the component field on bugzilla) is not fit to
> be shipped with the release.

we could find such a bug in probably almost every single application in the SC 
:)

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
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