bug#11318: [Patchset] A bugfix and an arguable bugfix for ediff-inferior-compare-regions

[Stefan Monnier]

>> Arguably, debbugs (sh|c)ould pay attention to the References: (or
>> In-reply-to:) header to automatically put the replies in the same bug as
>> their "parent" message.
> It does (I added this feature), but:

Good, thanks.  I did remember you adding such a thing, but I figured it
must have been something slightly different.

> a) It needs time (I think) to process the first message and update the
> bug index with the message-id, so if all messages arrive at the same
> instant, it doesn't work.

Oh, yes, that's a real bummer.  So we'd have to sequentialize processing
of incoming messages (if it's not done yet) and handle the message-ids
both ways: i.e. recognize when a message comes after its reply and put
it in the same bug-id.  That could be tricky/risky indeed.

> b) I made the decision to require a subject starting with "Re:" for this
> to take effect, because sometimes people reply to an old message and
> change the subject with the intention of creating a new report.
> (I'm pretty sure I've said this before.)
> I'm feeling like I should admit defeat on this aspect, since it seems
> people just love messing around with the subject header.

Is there an easy way to see (in retrospect) whether this "Re:" filtering
did the right thing more often than not?

> I also added something that makes [patch] equivalent to
> Tags:patch

Great, tho it doesn't seem to be used much.


        Stefan