Debian maintainer criticizes email-managed bug tracker as outdated for modern development — there is a web interface for viewing, but email remains the only way to perform critical functions

A dispute has flared up inside the Debian project after a veteran maintainer criticized the Debian's bug tracking system as outdated and increasingly unworkable for modern software development. The comments, made by Meson build system creator and Debian maintainer Jussi Pakkanen on December 22, argue that Debian’s reliance on email-based bug control is actively discouraging contributors and leaving bugs poorly maintained.

Pakkanen, who maintains Meson packages in Debian, said the project’s Bug Tracking System still requires developers to manage bug states by sending specially formatted emails to control addresses. While Debian provides a web interface for viewing bugs, actions such as closing, reassigning, or adjusting severity are typically performed via email commands rather than through a modern authenticated web UI.

"Using an email client as the only way of modifying bugs… is not only a bad idea, it is [a] terrible idea. To me managing bugs is so awful that it is actively pushing me away from contributing to Debian. The bug statuses on Meson are not kept up to date because I prefer that to having to deal with the bug tracker. I suspect I am not alone in this,” he said.

Even when fixes are available upstream, in his view, the system creates unnecessary overhead for maintainers and increases the likelihood that bugs remain open or misclassified long after they should have been resolved. He also raised concerns about security and auditability, noting that anyone who understands the email syntax can submit control messages, with optional rather than mandatory authentication.

Not everyone agrees with Pakkanen; some developers argue that email provides a stable, standardized interface that does not depend on centralized web services, or account management.

Requests for a full-featured web-based interface to manage Debian bugs are not new. Debian’s own bug tracker archives show that similar proposals date back to 2000, with some marked as “wontfix” on the grounds that email-based control was sufficient and more resilient.

Pakkanen has not called for Debian to abandon its current bug tracking workflow, however, suggesting instead that an incremental approach in which a web service generates the same control emails behind the scenes could be implemented. This would preserve compatibility with the current backend while offering maintainers a usable interface. Over time, Debian could tighten controls on direct email submissions once a viable alternative exists, Pakkanen says.

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