Launchpad itself

Old bug watch errors don't get cleared if the remote bug doesn't change

Bug #586754 reported by Matthew Paul Thomas
10
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Launchpad itself
Triaged
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

What happens:
If a bug watch on a bug tracker on which an LP plugin is installed has failed to update in the past, but has not been changed on the remote system since, the error will never be cleared in Launchpad. This is because Launchpad will check to see if the remote bug has changed and if not won't bother to update the watch.

What should happen:
If Launchpad has an error recorded for a bug watch it should always check that watch, regardless of whether or not the bug has changed on the remote server.

An example of this bug can be found as follows:
Bug 67476 is linked via upstream Metacity to <https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=357702>. Launchpad gives this link a /!\ icon with a tooltip: "GNOME bugtracker bug 357702 appears not to exist". This is not true.

Bug 507603 is the same problem with a debbugs instance.

See original description
Revision history for this message
Graham Binns (gmb) wrote :

This is odd; there's no activity recorded for the bug watch and yet it was apparently updated less than a day ago.

I'll have a poke around with the help of a sysadmin to try and find out what's going on.

Changed in malone:
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Graham Binns (gmb) wrote :

Ah, I see what's happened here.

Apparently the remote bug hasn't changed since 2007, so the watch is never getting updated (LP checks with the gnome bugzilla to find out whether a bug has changed since it was last checked and doesn't updated it if not). There was probably an error at some time in the past, but since the watch isn't being updated it's never been cleared. I'll update this bug to reflect that problem.

We can fix the data for this but we'll have to wait until next week since we're close to a rollout. I'll add it to my to-do list.

summary: - bugzilla.gnome.org watch has "appears not to exist" warning
+ Old bug watch errors don't get cleared if the remote bug doesn't change
description: updated
tags: added: bugwatch story-reliable-bug-syncing
Graham Binns (gmb)
Changed in malone:
status: Incomplete → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Low
Graham Binns (gmb)
tags: added: cleanup
Revision history for this message
Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst) wrote :

I'm seeing the same problem for lots of old debian bug watches:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/debian/+source/xkbsel/+bug/59561
Debian Bug tracker bug #347515 appears not to exist. Check that the bug number is correct.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/debian/+source/slocate/+bug/155061
Debian Bug tracker bug #457004 appears not to exist. Check that the bug number is correct.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/debian/+source/wireshark/+bug/209084
Debian Bug tracker bug #524360 appears not to exist. Check that the bug number is correct.

...

In all cases clicking the debbugs links get me to the correct page on http://bugs.debian.org, so the bugs do exist!
Would be nice if these bug watches were updated automatically to reflect the current status.

Revision history for this message
Pascal De Vuyst (pascal-devuyst) wrote :

Please raise the importance of this bug.

Revision history for this message
Robert Collins (lifeless) wrote : Re: [Bug 586754] Re: Old bug watch errors don't get cleared if the remote bug doesn't change

@pascal, there is a separate bug for this debbugs issue.

Curtis Hovey (sinzui)
tags: added: tech-debt
removed: cleanup
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