[boost] Fall bug sprint starts tomorrow! (Assuming that the release happens today)

Subject: [boost] Fall bug sprint starts tomorrow! (Assuming that the release happens today)
From: Marshall Clow (mclow.lists_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-11-17 09:41:31

Here's the deal on the bug sprint:

It will run until Sunday, November 29th. For those in the USA, that includes the long Thanksgiving weekend.

The goal is to classify and fix bugs, and to close resolve Trac tickets. 
For those just joining in, the tickets live at https://svn.boost.org
The instructions (mostly repeated here) for the last bug sprint are at https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/BugSprintJune2009

General information about the ticket process is at 

What can you do?

You can fix bugs
        • If you are a library maintainer, you can commit your fixes.
        • If you are not a library maintainer, you can fix a problem on your local machine (and test it!!), and then attach your fix as a patch to the Trac ticket for the library maintainer to commit. If you do this, please provide a test case that exercises the problem; i.e, one that fails w/o your patch, and succeeds afterwards.

You can characterize bugs
        • You can attempt to replicate the bug on your system(s), and attach information that you discover to the Trac ticket. This will make it easier for other people to solve the problem, even if you cannot.
        • You can write test cases demonstrating the problem, and attach them to the Trac ticket.
        • You can determine if the bug still exists; sometimes they get fixed, and the ticket never gets closed. In this case, try to identify a checkin that addresses the bug; it's always suspicious when bugs go away "by accident."

You can test patches
        • Some of the tickets in the Trac system contain patches - some are quite old. You can install these patches on your system, and determine if they (a) build, and (b) work. If you do this, please provide detail. Don't just say "works for me" - say "I installed this over revision XXX on system YYY with compiler ZZZ. The patch installed and compiled successfully, and passed all the tests."
        • You can write test cases for the patches, and attach them to the ticket.

You can help implement new features
        • There are a whole set of "feature requests" in the Trac system. If you have an idea about one of these, you can add comments to the Trac system. You can attempt to implement these new features, and attach the patch to the ticket. (Don't forget the test cases!!).

There are several Trac reports that I find helpful for looking at the bugs:

Open ticket count by owner:		https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/report/18		(Note that there are 10 tickets that have no owner!)
Open ticket count by component:	https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/report/19
Open ticket count by type		https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/report/20	(Overwhelmingly, these are 'bugs')
Open ticket count by milestone:	https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/report/21	(Many old milestones here, including 62 tickets w/o a milestone)

and, of course, the main report at https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/report/1 which shows that we currently have 856 open tickets.

As soon as the release is final, I will be posting the "release branch" vs. "trunk" comparison as well, so we can find things that need to be merged.

-- Marshall