179115 - changes to Cc: list should not update bug's last changed date

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(bugzilla.mozilla.org :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

There are some changes which are changes to fields relevant to the bug itself
and there are some changes which have nothing to do with the bug. Actually, it's
probably not that black and white. 

I'd like to see the last changed date only reflect changes which are clearly
relevant to the bug. Cc: changes (additions and subtractions) seem to be the
least relevant to the bug and are strong candidates for exception to the last
changed date updating.

This would help people who sort buglist by last changed date to see bugs with
recent (and relevant) activity. I do this regularly to manage several buglists
and it's thrown completely out the window when someone decides to cc: himself on
a bunch of bugs in that list.

I'm sure there's going to be disagreement on this so let the debate begin :-)

Comment 1

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

I strongly agree with this. I use a bug list to replace bugmail and having the
CC list changes change the change time is really annoying.

We don't need to worry about the change time being used for preventing
collisions with the cc list, btw, because you can't collide those now anyway.

Comment 2

[Colin Ogilvie [:cso]]

Is this still wanted? I have a patch attached to another installation of
Bugzilla that I use that I can easily update to apply to CVS.

Comment 3

[Ran]

I want it, but only for b.m.o.'s sake.

Comment 4

[Bradley Baetz (:bbaetz)]

The last modified date is used to handle mail sending, so you'd need a separate
field.

Comment 5

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Colin, an updted patch would be great! This is definitely still wanted.

Comment 6

[Frédéric Buclin]

You cannot add entries in the bug activity table without updating delta_ts as well.

Comment 7

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

(In reply to comment #6)
> You cannot add entries in the bug activity table without updating delta_ts as
well.

hmmm...  why not?  The mail code only checks to see if there's anything in the
activity log dated more-recently than the previous lastdiffed value.  It doesn't
even look at delta_ts.

The cron job that checks for unsent mail only looks to see if there's bugs with
delta_ts > lastdiffed.  The only potential side effect is if someone adds a CC
and the mail doesn't complete, the cron job won't ever finish the job because
the cron job won't know there was changes.  On the other hand, the cron job
could always be fixed to look for activity entries and comments newer than
lastdiffed instead of looking at delta_ts...   And making mail actually work on
large bugs would be the best long-term solution. :)

Comment 8

[Frédéric Buclin]

this bug would fix bug 69447

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Colin wrote in comment #2
> I have a patch attached to another installation of
> Bugzilla that I use that I can easily update to apply to CVS.

is that still possible?


(In reply to comment #8)
> this bug would fix bug 69447

if so, should 69447 be marked dependent on this?

Comment 12

[Allan [:asilva]]

I was going to open a bug with this subject!
I was reviewing the Balrog backlog and adding myself as CC in some bugs. Today I opened backlog again and realized that all those bugs, in the "last updated" field, are now "a day ago". I think that this behavior can be confusing for the triage owner, next time he opens the backlog will see some bugs updated, but with no relevant information.

Comment 13

[Dylan Hardison [:dylan] (he/him)]

We can add a new field, last_major_change or something, but the delta_ts stuff is basically baked in and needed for many things, like figuring out changes to include in an email

Comment 14

[Kohei Yoshino [:kohei]]

Bug 1524204 has reminded me of this bug. I think we should make this change now, and also stop sending email notifications for CC changes.

• This makes bug triaging harder, year by year
  • The situation is much worse than when this bug is filed 17 years ago
• Cc changes are hidden on bugs by default
  • The “Show CC Changes” option can also be completely removed
    • These changes are still visible on the bug’s history page
• Comment tagging doesn’t update the bug’s last changed date
  • Nor send any notification
  • Nor logged on the bug’s timeline
• (Un)subscribing GitHub’s issue/PR also doesn’t send any notification

Comment 15

[Kohei Yoshino [:kohei]]

Attachment: GitHub Pull Request

Sylvestre has also agreed to do it, so I’ll take a shot. This makes triagers happy, while most users may not notice the change.

Comment 16

[Emma Humphries ☕️🎸🧞‍♀️✨ (she/they) [:emceeaich] (Pacific Time) use needinfo]

Yes, I think this is not a substantive change to the bug that requires notification.

Comment 17

[Kohei Yoshino [:kohei]]

Given that some user may rely on the delta_ts field as Dylan said in the PR, I’ll close this bug as WONTFIX in favour of a new field being added in Bug 1547414. Will update the dependencies as well.