PRs are being closed for bogus reasons :-(

[Warner Losh]

On Fri, Jun 1, 2018 at 8:53 AM, <rb at gid.co.uk> wrote:

>
> > On 1 Jun 2018, at 15:41, Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On Fri, Jun 1, 2018 at 8:10 AM, Bob Bishop <rb at gid.co.uk> wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> > On 31 May 2018, at 22:14, Poul-Henning Kamp <phk at phk.freebsd.dk>
> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > --------
> >> > In message <CANCZdfovyg61=b0-60ZD426Z=774Wxm9hJxZ=bSqReW_fD4DoA@
> mail.gmail.com>
> >> > , Warner Losh writes:
> >> >
> >> >> There's a problem with the PR database: there's too many bugs.
> >> >
> >> > And despite the valiant efforts of a number of people over the
> >> > lifetime of the project, it has always had so many bugs that
> >> > everybody just threw their hands in the air and walked away.
> >> >
> >> > The way to improve the situation is to fix PR's, not to complain
> >> > about PRs.
> >>
> >> Indeed. But look at the number of PRs with patches that are stuck in
> that state. Not pretty.
> >
> > Over the years I've committed dozens of PRs that had patches in them.
> The sad truth is that only about 10-15% of them have comitable patches in
> them when submitted. And that number decays over time as things age in
> bugzilla. [etc]
>
> Sure. But the best a non-comitter can do is to supply a patch tested
> against HEAD. If the patch rots because it hasn’t been committed six months
> down the line it’s not my fault.
>

Well, not quite true. I've had several people send me pointers to bugs over
the years and engage me when I tell them that the patch isn't quite right.
That conversation is easier, to my mind, in Phabricator, though. There's no
substitute for making good connections and motivating volunteers to want to
help you. That gives much better results than filing and forgetting and
hoping for the best. As a committer, I find it a low return on investment
to go looking at random PRs. I find it a much higher return on investment
when I have a history with someone (even a short one).

Fixing this broken state of affairs is not going to be easy...

Warner