[Reportbug-maint] Bug#679146: reportbug should be the most stable application in Debian, but it is not

[Anton Eliasson]

Package: reportbug
Version: 6.4
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,
It goes without saying that the tools used to report bugs in software must
never crash themselves, but a quick search for "segfault" yields several open
reports against reportbug. The users are probably furious enough as it is
because their favourite software is not to their satisfaction. Seeing the bug
reporting tool crash as well will just make them reluctant to reporting bugs.

I suggest that reportbug should be rewritten in a stable programming language
(C for instance) and shipped statically linked against libraries that are known
to work well. Even in Debian Sid because the need for good bug reports is just
as great there.
And no, I'm unfortunately not providing a patch myself, I'm just pointing out
the issue.



-- Package-specific info:
** Environment settings:
EDITOR="emacs"
DEBEMAIL="devel at antoneliasson.se"
DEBFULLNAME="Anton Eliasson"
INTERFACE="gtk2"

** /home/anton/.reportbugrc:
reportbug_version "6.3.1"
mode standard
ui gtk2
no-cc
header "X-Debbugs-CC: devel at antoneliasson.se"
smtphost reportbug.debian.org

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=sv_SE.utf8, LC_CTYPE=sv_SE.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages reportbug depends on:
ii  apt               0.9.6
ii  python            2.7.3~rc2-1
ii  python-reportbug  6.4

reportbug recommends no packages.

Versions of packages reportbug suggests:
pn  claws-mail                                 <none>
pn  debconf-utils                              <none>
pn  debsums                                    <none>
pn  dlocate                                    <none>
ii  emacs23-bin-common                         23.4+1-3
ii  exim4                                      4.80-3
ii  exim4-daemon-light [mail-transport-agent]  4.80-3
ii  file                                       5.11-1
ii  gnupg                                      1.4.12-4
ii  python-gtk2                                2.24.0-3
pn  python-gtkspell                            <none>
pn  python-urwid                               <none>
ii  python-vte                                 1:0.28.2-4
ii  xdg-utils                                  1.1.0~rc1+git20111210-6

Versions of packages python-reportbug depends on:
ii  apt               0.9.6
ii  python            2.7.3~rc2-1
ii  python-debian     0.1.21
ii  python-debianbts  1.11
ii  python-support    1.0.14

python-reportbug suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information