Bugzilla: Mass marking of "old" tickets as resolved (was: Re: Poll: Auto-closing "old" tickets)

Philippe Cloutier <[email protected]> Tue, 26 May 2026 10:34:42 -0400
Newsgroups gmane.comp.apache.devel
Message-ID <[email protected]>
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--------------ZitD7O3eArSL5hMs97471CpS
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Greetings,

On 5/20/2026 10:58 AM, Philippe Cloutier wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> On 5/6/2026 12:32 PM, Bowen, Rich wrote:
>> After some chat on Slack, I wanted to have a poll here on the idea of 
>> closing “old” tickets, for various definitions of old. The Slack 
>> conversation was in favor, but as that is a small subset of the 
>> entire project, I’m hoping to get a broader consensus here. There are 
>> several questions:
>>
>>
>> 1) Do you want to auto-close tickets that are filed against 2.0? 
>> (Data: There’s only 19 of them. The newest of these is from 2009. 
>> https://httpd.rcbowen.com/httpd-20x-open-bugs.html)
>
>
> What do you mean by "closing tickets"?


If I understand correctly, the proposal was a one-time mass manipulation 
of the tickets, which has now been done 
(https://lists.apache.org/thread/jgzgq99vo347yhfwfojtzh8vj2xfzp2t).

Currently, the following query approximates affected tickets: 
https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&bug_status=NEEDINFO&bug_status=RESOLVED&bug_status=VERIFIED&bug_status=CLOSED&f1=days_elapsed&f2=days_elapsed&list_id=224983&o1=lessthan&o2=greaterthan&order=Importance&product=Apache%20httpd-2&query_format=advanced&v1=18&v2=16
This query relies on 2 parameters focusing on 2026-05-09 which need to 
be adjusted as days pass, currently set to 18 and 16.

Based on an analysis of a small sample 
(https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=39913 and 
https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20036), I infer the 
modifications done were:

 1. Marking issues as resolved
 2. Setting RESOLUTION to WONTFIX
 3. Adding a comment

In the above cases, the comment was:

> Thank you for your report. Apache httpd 2.2.x reached end-of-life in December 2017 and is no longer supported. If this issue still affects Apache httpd 2.4.x or trunk, please open a new ticket. We are closing this ticket as the affected version is no longer maintained.

This makes no sense to me:

 1. I see nothing which suggests these issues are indeed resolved.
 2. I see no reason why these bugs would not be fixed.
 3. The issues are reported against httpd 2, which remains supported,
    not specifically against 2.2.
 4. Filing a new ticket for an issue already tracked is (generally) a
    Bad Idea™.
 5. I see no reason to assume a single version is affected.

If the above accurately reflects the proposal, my answer is negative in 
all cases. Perhaps something should be done about case #3, but again 
certainly not marking all of these as resolved, and not without care 
(see INFRA-27948 <https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/INFRA-27948>).

>
>
>> […]
>>
>> The goal here is to make our ticket backlog less daunting, and more 
>> appealing to contributors who want to pick meaningful stuff to work on.


I feel like this makes my personal backlog more daunting, and doubt it 
could be different for others. I recommend to revert that.

-- 
🅭🄍:https://www.philippecloutier.com/Common+infrastructure+licensing#list

Philippe Cloutier

--------------ZitD7O3eArSL5hMs97471CpS
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>Greetings,</p>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/20/2026 10:58 AM, Philippe
      Cloutier wrote:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote type="cite"
      cite="mid:[email protected]">Greetings,
      <br>
      <br>
      On 5/6/2026 12:32 PM, Bowen, Rich wrote:
      <br>
      <blockquote type="cite">After some chat on Slack, I wanted to have
        a poll here on the idea of closing “old” tickets, for various
        definitions of old. The Slack conversation was in favor, but as
        that is a small subset of the entire project, I’m hoping to get
        a broader consensus here. There are several questions:
        <br>
        <br>
        <br>
        1) Do you want to auto-close tickets that are filed against 2.0?
        (Data: There’s only 19 of them. The newest of these is from
        2009. <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://httpd.rcbowen.com/httpd-20x-open-bugs.html">https://httpd.rcbowen.com/httpd-20x-open-bugs.html</a>)
        <br>
      </blockquote>
      <br>
      <br>
      What do you mean by "closing tickets"? <br>
    </blockquote>
    <p><br>
    </p>
    <p>If I understand correctly, the proposal was a one-time mass
      manipulation of the tickets, which has now been done
      (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.apache.org/thread/jgzgq99vo347yhfwfojtzh8vj2xfzp2t">https://lists.apache.org/thread/jgzgq99vo347yhfwfojtzh8vj2xfzp2t</a>).</p>
    <p>Currently, the following query approximates affected tickets:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&amp;bug_status=NEW&amp;bug_status=ASSIGNED&amp;bug_status=REOPENED&amp;bug_status=NEEDINFO&amp;bug_status=RESOLVED&amp;bug_status=VERIFIED&amp;bug_status=CLOSED&amp;f1=days_elapsed&amp;f2=days_elapsed&amp;list_id=224983&amp;o1=lessthan&amp;o2=greaterthan&amp;order=Importance&amp;product=Apache%20httpd-2&amp;query_format=advanced&amp;v1=18&amp;v2=16">https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&amp;bug_status=NEW&amp;bug_status=ASSIGNED&amp;bug_status=REOPENED&amp;bug_status=NEEDINFO&amp;bug_status=RESOLVED&amp;bug_status=VERIFIED&amp;bug_status=CLOSED&amp;f1=days_elapsed&amp;f2=days_elapsed&amp;list_id=224983&amp;o1=lessthan&amp;o2=greaterthan&amp;order=Importance&a
 mp;product=Apache%20httpd-2&amp;query_format=advanced&amp;v1=18&amp;v2=16</a><br>
      This query relies on 2 parameters focusing on 2026-05-09 which
      need to be adjusted as days pass, currently set to 18 and 16.</p>
    <p>Based on an analysis of a small sample
      (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=39913">https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=39913</a> and
      <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20036">https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20036</a>), I infer the
      modifications done were:</p>
    <ol>
      <li>Marking issues as resolved</li>
      <li>Setting RESOLUTION to WONTFIX</li>
      <li>Adding a comment</li>
    </ol>
    <p>In the above cases, the comment was:</p>
    <pre class="bz_comment_text" id="comment_text_8"><blockquote
    type="cite"><pre class="bz_comment_text" id="comment_text_8">Thank you for your report. Apache httpd 2.2.x reached end-of-life in December 2017 and is no longer supported. If this issue still affects Apache httpd 2.4.x or trunk, please open a new ticket. We are closing this ticket as the affected version is no longer maintained.</pre>
</blockquote>
This makes no sense to me:
</pre>
    <ol>
      <li>I see nothing which suggests these issues are indeed resolved.</li>
      <li>I see no reason why these bugs would not be fixed.</li>
      <li>The issues are reported against httpd 2, which remains
        supported, not specifically against 2.2.</li>
      <li>Filing a new ticket for an issue already tracked is
        (generally) a Bad Idea™.</li>
      <li>I see no reason to assume a single version is affected.</li>
    </ol>
    <p>If the above accurately reflects the proposal, my answer is
      negative in all cases. Perhaps something should be done about case
      #3, but again certainly not marking all of these as resolved, and
      not without care (see <a class="issue-link"
        data-issue-key="INFRA-27948"
        href="https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/INFRA-27948"
        id="key-val" rel="13651937">INFRA-27948</a>).</p>
    <blockquote type="cite"
      cite="mid:[email protected]"><br>
      <br>
      <blockquote type="cite">[…]
        <br>
        <br>
        The goal here is to make our ticket backlog less daunting, and
        more appealing to contributors who want to pick meaningful stuff
        to work on. <br>
      </blockquote>
    </blockquote>
    <p><br>
    </p>
    <p>I feel like this makes my personal backlog more daunting, and
      doubt it could be different for others. I recommend to revert
      that.</p>
    <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- 
🅭🄍: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.philippecloutier.com/Common+infrastructure+licensing#list">https://www.philippecloutier.com/Common+infrastructure+licensing#list</a>

Philippe Cloutier</pre>
  </body>
</html>

--------------ZitD7O3eArSL5hMs97471CpS--