Subject: bug#66330: 28.2; Gnus wide reply (S W) changes Subject header when used from Debbugs thread

From: Björn Bidar <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2023 11:31:55 +0300

Michael Albinus <[email-masked]> writes:

>>> 5. Observe that the Subject header in the email response being edited
>>> has been changed to "Re: bug#65479: [PATCH core-updates 00/61] The
>>> Draining of the XML & DocBook Swamp.", that is, the original subject of
>>> the "bug" (its first message).
>>
>> This is a bad Subject line to begin with, from where I stand: it
>> should not include the patch series numbers, and it should not assume
>> there will be additional messages with different series numbers.
>>
>> The Subject lines in a bug/issue discussion should describe the
>> bug/issue, not the patches sent to fix the issue.
>
> D'accord. But I guess the subject line quoted here is created by a tool
> of the guix-patches toolchain. So first we shall agree about the rules
> of that toolchain (I'm from Emacs, I won't dictate anything!).

The `[PATCH patch-number/patch-count] Subject` subject format is also the
generate format for Git patch-series. The Guix subject format is a
variant of this.

The subject changing could be an issue outside of Gnus. E.g when
responding to a patch in git patch series outside of Guix.

However I think it is a general issue that mail clients append Re: or
some localized variation of it. The issue should also be reported to
Guix.
Other ticket/bugtracking systems might not like changing the subject
either.