GitHub Issues for BPO Users#

Here are some frequently asked questions about how to do things in GitHub issues that you used to be able to do on bpo.

Before you ask your own question, make sure you read Issue Tracker and Triaging an Issue (specifically including GitHub Labels) as those pages include a lot of introductory material.

How to format my comments nicely?#

There is a wonderful beginner guide to writing and formatting on GitHub. Highly recommended.

One pro-tip we can sell you right here is that if you want to paste some longer log as a comment, attach a file instead (see how below). If you still insist on pasting it in your comment, do it like this:

<details>
<summary>This is the summary text, click me to expand</summary>

Here goes the long, long text.
It will be collapsed by default!
</details>

How to attach files to an issue?#

Drag them into the comment field, wait until the file uploads, and GitHub will automatically put a link to your file in your comment text.

How to do advanced searches?#

Use the GitHub search syntax or the interactive advanced search form that generates search queries for you.

Where is the “nosy list”?#

Subscribe another person to the issue by tagging them in the comment with @username.

If you want to subscribe yourself to an issue, click the 🔔 Subscribe button in the sidebar.

Similarly, if you were tagged by somebody else but decided this issue is not for you, you might click the 🔕 Unsubscribe button in the sidebar.

There is no exact equivalent of the “nosy list” feature, so to preserve this information during the transfer, we list the previous members of this list in the first message on the migrated issue.

How to add issue dependencies?#

Add a checkbox list like this in the issue description:

- [x] #739
- [ ] https://github.com/octo-org/octo-repo/issues/740
- [ ] Add delight to the experience when all tasks are complete :tada:

then those will become sub-tasks on the given issue. Moreover, GitHub will automatically mark a task as complete if the other referenced issue is closed. More details in the official GitHub documentation.

What on Earth is a “mannequin”?#

For issues migrated to GitHub from bpo where the authors or commenters are not core developers, we opted not to link to their GitHub accounts directly. Users not in the python organization on GitHub might not like comments to appear under their name from an automated import. Others never linked GitHub on bpo in the first place so linking their account, if any, would be impossible.

In those cases a “mannequin” account is present to help follow the conversation that happened in the issue. In case the user did share their GitHub account name in their bpo profile, we use that. Otherwise, their classic bpo username is used instead.

Where did the “Resolution” field go?#

Based on historical data we found it not being used very often.

Where did the “Low”, “High”, and “Critical” priorities go?#

Based on historical data we found those not being used very often.

How to find a random issue?#

This is not supported by GitHub.

Where are regression labels?#

We rarely updated this information and it turned out not to be particularly useful outside of the change log.