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

From: Maxim Cournoyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2023 10:58:04 -0400

Hello,

Michael Albinus <[email-masked]> writes:

> Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:
>
> Hi Eli,
>
>>> When attempting to reply from an Emacs Debbugs thread specific email,
>>> the Subject line gets set to the subject of the first email in the
>>> thread rather than to that of the specific email I'm replying to, which
>>> looses context.
>>
>> The Subject lines of emails pertaining to a discussion of a bug should
>> never be changed.  So I see no problem here, unless I'm missing
>> something.
>>
>> Michael, am I wrong?
>
> Well, we haven't documented such a rule. But based on my experience I
> would agree. There's often a message in the [email-masked] ML
> with the subject "bug#xxxxx: Patch" or alike, which doesn't help. I'm
> too old to remember all the bug numbers and their related topic, and I
> read only messages in that ML with topics I'm interested in.
>
>>> 1. M-x debbugs-gnu-bugs 65479
>>>
>>> 2. Press 'a' to load the bug despite the lack of SSL certificates.
>>>
>>> 3. Navigate to the message titled:
>>> [bug#65479] [PATCH core-updates 02/61] gnu: Add docbook-xml-5.
>>>
>>> 4. Press S W to send a wide reply.
>>>
>>> 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.

When working on bugs, I agree this behavior makes sense, where the
original bug title should be kept around.  I'm fine with that behavior
for the 'bug-guix' tracker, which tracks bugs.  Where I'd like to be
able to customize/change that behavior is when working with *patches*
posted to guix-patches, which is also hosted on Debbugs.

These patches typically get sent via 'git send-email' and include in
their subject the patch number, e.g. [PATCH v2 12/62].  I want this
preserved when reviewing the patch, so that participant knows what was
reviewed.

> 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!).
>
> If this is an agreed behavior, we could discuss about a debbugs-gnu user
> option how to handle the subject line of replies, with a different
> default value for guix-patches messages. The global default shouldn't be
> changed.

That sounds good to me.

> Well, we even have already guix specific code, see debbugs-guix.el. I
> would appreciate if somebody from the guix project supports me in
> writing such a patch.

I'm willing to work on it.  It seems you draft a plan in another reply,
which I'll look at now.

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim