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Custom Debian Distributions
Appendix C - Using the Bug Tracking System

C.1 How to ask for packages which are not yet included

A very frequently asked question in mailing list is, whether program_xy can be integrated into a Custom Debian Distribution. As long as there is an official package of this program it is an easy task. But mostly users ask for software which is not yet integrated into Debian.

There is a detailed description how anybody can ask for including a certain piece of software into Debian. It explains how to use the program reportbug for this purpose.

If you use wnpp sanely you can even tag this bug for the intended purpose to include it in a certain Custom Debian Distribution. This was described in a mail of Anthony Towns and the Debian wiki. It was also described in a mail of Ben Armstrong and in short works like this:

• Add an usertag to an existing bug by sending to request@bugs.debian.org a mail containing

                    user <email>
                    usertag <bug number> + wnpp <metapackage name>
  

  , where email is the electronic address of the person or mailing list which coordinates the relevant Custom Debian Distribution.

  For instance if you want to tag an ITP with bug number #123456 for Debian-Med section biology you would send the following mail to request@bugs.debian.org:

                      user debian-med@lists.debian.org
                      usertag 123456 + wnpp med-bio
                      thanks
  

  Note: Because the search is case sensitive please always use lower case tags!

• To search for WNPP bugs of a certain Custom Debian Distribution just visit the URL

       http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?tag=wnpp;users=email
  

C.2 How to report problems

Debian has a very useful Bug Tracking System (BTS) but unfortunately users seldom know about this fact and how to use it right. This is the reason why users sometimes become angry about errors because they do not know what to do next and just install a different distribution instead of trying to solve the problem.

A detailed explanation how to report errors is helpful in these cases. While the program reportbug fetches other reports from BTS before creating the bug report it is always a good idea to search http://bugs.debian.org/_package_ for known problems and probably suggested solutions before calling reportbug.

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Custom Debian Distributions